Drucker cited the case of companies making heavy electrical switching gear for powerhouses and transformer stations.

FORBES: Is There a Little Rupert Murdoch in All of Us?

He joined Cyras in July after Menlo Partners, Cyras' biggest backer, decided the startup needed someone who could sell newfangled switching gear to old-fashioned phone companies.

FORBES: The God Box

Crosspoint Venture Partners and Institutional Venture Partners both invested in Foundry Networks (nasdaq: FDRY - news - people), a maker of Internet switching gear.

FORBES: In the Lurch

Foundry Networks, a maker of Internet-switching gear that--mirabile dictu--is actually profitable, posted a fivefold gain on its first day of trading, a performance topped only by last year's Theglobe.com.

FORBES: A Year for Sizzle

Roth counters that the deal catapults Nortel ahead of its chief competitors -- number one phone equipment maker Lucent Technologies, and Cisco Systems, the largest Internet switching gear manufacturer.

FORBES: Follow Through

Would you rather buy the cheapest switching gear on the market or buy the one from the company that controls the power generated for the Statue of Liberty, the Superdome, and oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico?

FORBES: Telling Your Story: The Secrets To Content Branding

The Superdome's power company took the blame Friday for the Super Bowl blackout, saying the cause was a faulty device that had been installed in its switching gear to prevent a failure of electric cables leading to the stadium.

WSJ: Super Bowl Outage Traced to Faulty Entergy Gear

Officials of the power company and from SMG, the company that manages the stadium for the state, had said earlier this week that they believed the problem originated in the switching gear, which is housed in a building known as "the vault" near the stadium.

WSJ: Super Bowl Outage Traced to Faulty Entergy Gear

The Bells, having spent hundreds of millions on DSL gear from Alcatel and Cisco, would likely balk at ever switching to an EtherLoop design.

FORBES: Magazine Article