Cabletron Systems

, USA-based provider of networking computer equipment that provided one of the major hardware boom stories of the dot-com era before succumbing to competition and breaking up into four subsidiaries in 2000.

Cabletron was founded in 1983 in a Massachusetts garage by Craig Benson, who later became New Hampshire's governor, and Robert Levine. It moved to Rochester, New Hampshire and at its peak employed 6,600 people. Cabletron's early success was in the manufacture of high-density 10base-T Ethernet hubs. Cabletron also made and sold routers and other networking equipment, but eventually succumbed to competition from companies such as Cisco Systems and 3Com.

In 2000 it reorganized as a holding company for networking firms: Enterasys Networks of Andover, Massachusetts (the core company, which later merged with Cabletron Systems the holding company, though keeping the Enterasys name, before going public in 2001 and was taken private in 2006 by [http://www.gores.com/ The Gores Group] , owned by Alec Gores); Riverstone Networks of Santa Clara, California (formerly YAGO Systems before being acquired by Cabletron, the only actual spin-off of Cabletron's reorganization, and later being acquired by Lucent Technologies, which was subsequently merged with Alcatel Networks, resulting in the wind-down and Chapter 11 [http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/wps/portal/riverstone liquidation] of Riverstone assets); Aprisma Management Technologies of Durham, New Hampshire (a subsidiary of Enterasys following the Cabletron paper merger, and subsequently acquired by Concord Communications which in turn was [http://www.ca.com/us/content/campaign.aspx?cid=132286 acquired] for $350M by Computer Associates, now renamed CA, Inc.); and Global Network Technology Services (also known as GNTS) of The Woodlands, Texas (which was absorbed back into Enterasys and Aprisma, shortly after being created).

Enterasys Networks continues to manufacture all manner of networking equipment and within their [http://www.enterasys.com/support/index.aspx knowledge base] to make available most of the documentation of the original Cabletron Systems products.