Turin wins White Rock

Turin Networks won the assets of White Rock Networks in a bankruptcy court auction last week, White Rock has confirmed.

Turin will pay $3.4 million in cash for most of White Rock’s assets and assume some additional liability. The deal is expected to obtain court approval Tuesday afternoon and close Wednesday.

Turin, a maker of multiservice transport gear, outbid BATM Advanced Communications, the parent company of Telco Systems, which has recently acquired IP DSLAM maker Critical Telecom and Ethernet equipment vendor Metrobility Optical Systems.

“BATM had more interest in our VLX300/400 IP aggregation products, whereas Turin had an interest in all our products,” White Rock chief executive officer Lonnie Martin told Telephony.

White Rock will sell its Shanghai subsidiary, which was not included in Turin’s offer and employs about 70 people, in an auction to be held on Friday, Oct. 20.

Turin's offer will be used to repay White Rock's creditors first. Whatever is left over will go to the company's investors, who contributed a total of $172 million to White Rock in five investment rounds during the company's seven-year life.

"At the present time, it would appear that virtually all creditors (except maybe our landlord) have a good chance to be paid in full," Martin said. "Yet the due date for proof of claims isn't until January 2007, and I am discovering claims have a way of materializing when you least expect. There may be a little cash left over for investors at the very end, which is projected to be the spring or summer of 2007, when the White Rock estate is closed down."