Alteon Networks

Nortel Networks Corp. continued its rapid-fire acquisition drive Friday with a stock deal valued at about $7.3 billion to buy Web switch developer Alteon WebSystems Inc. Nortel, the world's No. 2 network equipment supplier, said Alteon's technology would help it build sophisticated communications systems that deliver content over the Internet at unprecedented levels of speed and reliability. Investors were not too impressed, with Nortel shares falling $4.88 on the news to close at $73.

Nortel Networks Corp. continued its rapid-fire acquisition drive Friday with a stock deal valued at about $7.3 billion to buy Web switch developer Alteon WebSystems Inc. Nortel, the world's No. 2 network equipment supplier, said Alteon's technology would help it build sophisticated communications systems that deliver content over the Internet at unprecedented levels of speed and reliability. Investors were not too impressed, with Nortel shares falling $4.88 on the news to close at $73.

For most of us who live in Silicon Valley, years of daydreaming have turned the process of creating a start-up company into a series of well-worn snapshots. The images from my own false memories start with a huddled team of engineers scribbling on place mats in a vinyl restaurant booth, a Palo Alto office full of white pine and venture capitalists and a delivery truck that unloads the cubicle partitions into our low-slung office space.

For most of us who live in Silicon Valley, years of daydreaming have turned the process of creating a start-up company into a series of well-worn snapshots. The images from my own false memories start with a huddled team of engineers scribbling on place mats in a vinyl restaurant booth, a Palo Alto office full of white pine and venture capitalists and a delivery truck that unloads the cubicle partitions into our low-slung office space.