BFi Optilas to distribute<br>Gennum in Europe and Israel

Gennum has selected BFi Optilas, a systems solutions distributor based in France, to represent the company's broad data communications product portfolio. Gennum cited the growing demand across Europe and Israel for 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) data communications solutions as a key factor in today's agreement with BFi Optilas. “Europe is playing a pivotal role in high speed data transfer applications today and the market is rapidly maturing to the levels of North America and Asia," said Klaus Mueller, Senior Vice President of Global Sales for Gennum. “BFi Optilas enables us to expand our current sales and suppor network with a true solutions partner, which is critical as advanced data communications deployments increasingly demand higher levels of integration for next generation solutions. This important partnership will provide immediate access and support for enterprise customers desiring advanced data communications solutions." BFi Optilas will represent Gennum's data communications product lines in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Benelux, Italy, Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom (UK), Ireland, France, Israel and Eastern Europe. The sales and support efforts of BFi OPTiLAS complement Gennum's current European sales team that operates from the company's UK headquarters located in Surrey, England. Additionally, Gennum has distribution partners throughout Europe and the UK for the company's video transport products, serving the broadcast, display and imaging markets. “We work with Europe and Israel's largest enterprise customers, delivering high performance systems solutions," said Ernesto Prestifilippo, European Business Development Director of BFi OPTiLAS. “Gennum's technology and products provide unique capabilities, enabling our customers to get higher density line card designs and deliver XFP and SFP+ modules at 10 gigabits per second. As 10GbE continues to accelerate and fiber becomes accessible for European customers, our ability to deliver low cost, high reliability systems is key."