-----BEGIN PRIVACY-ENHANCED MESSAGE----- Proc-Type: 2001,MIC-CLEAR Originator-Name: webmaster@www.sec.gov Originator-Key-Asymmetric: MFgwCgYEVQgBAQICAf8DSgAwRwJAW2sNKK9AVtBzYZmr6aGjlWyK3XmZv3dTINen TWSM7vrzLADbmYQaionwg5sDW3P6oaM5D3tdezXMm7z1T+B+twIDAQAB MIC-Info: RSA-MD5,RSA, PSzGyFtL9oKgkkXW/U/9MtO0fygODI/+MujKmXQQvOVAwNsgiS+M406y5PmLbmLy NOpz9YuKMo3KyXf/hLfxvQ== 0000950134-04-014173.txt : 20040927 0000950134-04-014173.hdr.sgml : 20040927 20040927171219 ACCESSION NUMBER: 0000950134-04-014173 CONFORMED SUBMISSION TYPE: 8-K PUBLIC DOCUMENT COUNT: 2 CONFORMED PERIOD OF REPORT: 20040927 ITEM INFORMATION: Other Events ITEM INFORMATION: Financial Statements and Exhibits FILED AS OF DATE: 20040927 DATE AS OF CHANGE: 20040927 FILER: COMPANY DATA: COMPANY CONFORMED NAME: BROCADE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS INC CENTRAL INDEX KEY: 0001009626 STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION: COMPUTER COMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT [3576] IRS NUMBER: 770409517 STATE OF INCORPORATION: DE FISCAL YEAR END: 1028 FILING VALUES: FORM TYPE: 8-K SEC ACT: 1934 Act SEC FILE NUMBER: 000-25601 FILM NUMBER: 041047760 BUSINESS ADDRESS: STREET 1: 1745 TECHNOLOGY DRIVE CITY: SAN JOSE STATE: CA ZIP: 95110 MAIL ADDRESS: STREET 1: 1745 TECHNOLOGY DRIVE CITY: SAN JOSE STATE: CA ZIP: 95110 8-K 1 f02046e8vk.htm FORM 8-K e8vk
Table of Contents

UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20549

FORM 8-K

CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of
The Securities Exchange Act of 1934

Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported)

September 27, 2004

BROCADE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
         
Delaware   000-25601   77-0409517
  		 
  		 
 
(State or other jurisdiction
of incorporation) 		  (Commission File Number)   (IRS Employer
Identification No.)

1745 Technology Drive
San Jose, CA 95110

(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)

408-333-8000

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions (see General Instruction A.2. below):

o   Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)
 
o   Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)
 
o   Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))
 
o   Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Item 8.01 Other Events
Item 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits
SIGNATURES
EXHIBIT 99.1

Table of Contents

Item 8.01 Other Events

On September 24, 2004, Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. and Emulex Corporation entered into a settlement which included a litigation standstill agreement and the formation of a strategic partnership relationship under which the parties are to work together to pursue mutual objectives. In the settlement, both Brocade and Emulex have agreed to dismiss without prejudice claims and counterclaims against each other in the pending patent infringement case in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California entitled Vixel Corporation v. Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., Civil Action No. C-030-02446. Emulex acquired Vixel on November 17, 2003. Under the litigation standstill agreement both parties preserved their respective rights, no restrictions of any kind were imposed on either party’s ability to sell products, no licenses were granted by either party, no money was exchanged, and they agreed to a three year standstill during which neither party may initiate litigation against the other party with respect to certain of their respective patents. On September 27, 2004, Brocade and Emulex issued a press release relating to the litigation standstill agreement and strategic partnership. A copy of the press release is filed as Exhibit 99.1 to this Current Report and is incorporated herein by reference.

Item 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits

     (c) Exhibits.

     
Exhibit    
No.
   Description
99.1
  Press release, dated September 27, 2004, announcing Brocade’s strategic partnership and settlement with Emulex of the Vixel litigation.

 

Table of Contents

SIGNATURES

     Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
         
  BROCADE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, INC.
 		  
  By:   /s/ Antonio Canova    
    Antonio Canova   
    Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer   
 

Date: September 27, 2004

 

Table of Contents

EXHIBIT INDEX

     
Exhibit    
No.
   Description
99.1
  Press release, dated September 27, 2004, announcing Brocade’s strategic partnership and settlement with Emulex of the Vixel litigation.

 

EX-99.1 2 f02046exv99w1.txt EXHIBIT 99.1 EXHIBIT 99.1 [EMULEX LOGO] [BROCADE LOGO] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE EMULEX PRESS CONTACT: BROCADE PRESS CONTACT: Robin Austin Leslie Davis Sr. Manager, Public Relations Director, Public Relations (714) 885-3462 650-333-5260 robin.austin@emulex.com lmdavis@brocade.com EMULEX AND BROCADE EXPAND STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP TO FURTHER SIMPLIFY SAN DEPLOYMENT Companies to Deliver Industry First Multi-Vendor Management Wizard for Fast and Simple Installation and Management of Emulex HBAs and Brocade Switches COSTA MESA, CALIF., and SAN JOSE, CALIF., September 27, 2004--Emulex Corporation (NYSE: ELX), the market leader in Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs) and embedded storage switches, and Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRCD), the world's leading provider of infrastructure solutions for Storage Area Networks (SANs), today announced an agreement to expand a multi-year strategic partnership to further simplify the deployment of SANs in enterprise, midrange and the small- to medium-sized business (SMB) market segments. As part of the agreement, Emulex and Brocade will co-develop an industry first multi-vendor SAN management wizard. This tool will integrate the installation and management of both Emulex HBAs and Brocade SilkWorm switches into a single, easy-to-use interface. Both Emulex and Brocade recently launched Fibre Channel SAN connectivity products specially designed for SMB business environments faced with managing rapid data growth. Following on their commitment to deliver simple and affordable SANs to SMBs, Emulex and Brocade are working together to make SAN deployment seamless for the end user. Emulex and Brocade also have a mutual end user customer base in the enterprise and midrange sectors and will leverage their work to expand use of the two companies' products beyond the data center - for use in departmental SANs and other applications throughout the corporate infrastructure. "This expanded partnership enables both Emulex and Brocade to provide a new level of value add to customers in search of simple and affordable storage networking solutions," said Mike Smith, executive vice president of worldwide marketing, Emulex Corp. "Our co-development of the first multi-vendor SAN management wizard is just the beginning of our new initiatives with Brocade to reduce the cost and complexity associated with storage area networks." "Brocade continues to work closely with Emulex to identify new ways for improving the value, ease-of-use, and ease-of-administration associated with storage area network infrastructure products," said Tom Buiocchi, Brocade's vice president of worldwide marketing. "As market leaders, it is critical that we pave the way for further simplification of SAN deployment and management, so SMB customers may benefit from the cost and operational savings that SAN-based solutions have provided for larger enterprises." The two companies will cooperatively market their products to channel partners that are currently bundling the Emulex LightPulse HBAs and Brocade SilkWorm switches. The integrated installation wizard will provide an easy-to-use installation suite for both companies' products that will save customers both time and money. The two companies also announced a three-year litigation standstill agreement, whereby Emulex and Brocade have dismissed without prejudice claims and counterclaims against each other in a case entitled Vixel Corporation v. Brocade Communications Systems. Emulex acquired Vixel in November 2003. The companies separately have filed 8K statements with the US Securities and Exchange Commission related to the litigation standstill agreement. ABOUT BROCADE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, INC. Brocade offers the industry's leading intelligent platform for networking storage. The world's leading systems, applications, and storage vendors have selected Brocade to provide a networking foundation for their SAN solutions. The Brocade SilkWorm family of fabric switches and software is designed to optimize data availability and storage and server resources in the enterprise. Using Brocade solutions, companies can simplify SAN implementation, reduce the total cost of ownership of data storage environments, and improve network and application efficiency. For more information, visit the Brocade Web site at www.brocade.com or contact the company at info@brocade.com. ABOUT EMULEX Emulex Corporation is the world leader in Fibre Channel HBAs and delivers a broad range of intelligent building blocks for next generation storage networking systems. Emulex was named one of FORBES Magazine's 25 Fastest Growing Technology Companies, and ranked number 15 in Deloitte & Touche's 2003 Technology Fast 50. The world's leading server and storage providers rely on Emulex HBAs, embedded storage switching and I/O controller products to build reliable, scalable and high performance storage solutions. The Emulex award-winning product families, including its LightPulse(TM) HBAs and InSpeed(TM) embedded storage switching products, are based on internally developed ASIC, firmware and software technologies, and offer customers high performance, scalability, flexibility and reduced total cost of ownership. Corporate headquarters are located in Costa Mesa, California. News releases and other information about Emulex Corporation are available at http://www.emulex.com. "Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: With the exception of historical information, the statements set forth above include forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties. Emulex and Brocade ("the Companies") wish to caution readers that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Those factors include the extent to which this agreement will result in reduced cost and complexity associated with SANs, the Companies' ability to develop an installation wizard which will provide an easy-to-use installation suite that will save customers time and money, the rapidly changing nature of technology, evolving industry standards and frequent introductions of new products and enhancements by competitors; fluctuation in the growth of Fibre Channel and IP markets; changes in economic conditions or changes in end-user demand for technology solutions; fluctuations or delays in customer orders; the highly competitive nature of the markets for the Companies' products; the Companies' ability to gain market acceptance for its products; the companies' ability to attract and retain skilled personnel; the companies' reliance on third-party suppliers. These and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are also discussed in the companies' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its recent filings on Forms 8-K, 10-K and 10-Q. - ----------------- BROCADE, THE BROCADE B WEAVE LOGO, FABRIC OS, SECURE FABRIC OS, AND SILKWORM ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF BROCADE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, INC., IN THE UNITED STATES AND/OR IN OTHER COUNTRIES. FICON IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF IBM CORPORATION IN THE U.S. AND OTHER COUNTRIES. ALL OTHER BRANDS, PRODUCTS, OR SERVICE NAMES ARE OR MAY BE TRADEMARKS OR SERVICE MARKS OF, AND ARE USED TO IDENTIFY, PRODUCTS OR SERVICES OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. # # # -----END PRIVACY-ENHANCED MESSAGE-----