Alteon offers ``intelligent content switches'' in the layer 4-7 space with performance and scalability for e-businesses, applications service providers and Internet service providers. Mr Jotshi said the intelligent content networking (server load balancing) market according to IDC was growing at a CAGR of 81 per cent and would touch $4 billion by 2004, up from the present $652 million. Alteon says it also has a cost-effective value proposition in that it bundles switching, load-balancing and bandwidth management in one box, instead of the legacy solutions involving different suppliers for the different equipment. It also takes care of the interoperability issue caused by sourcing equipment from a variety of manufacturers. The company's products based on the next generation of network processing ASICs had given it an edge in terms of speed of content delivery, Mr Jotshi said, adding that on the information highway ``slow kills, not speed''. Alteon is targeting ASPs, content delivery networks and wirelessservice providers apart from the `traditional' markets including Web-hosters, publishers, portals, e-commerce and data centres.

As Nortel's content business networking unit (its president and CEO Dominic Orr will be president of the new unit), it will leverage the networking giant's financial and marketing strengths, to position itself in the optical and wireless space. However, the Alteon brand will continue to be used.