MILPITAS, CA – Solectron Corp. will purchase McDATA Corp.’s Lumberton, NJ, manufacturing operations and assets. The deal is expected to close this week.

McDATA, a provider of storage networking solutions, obtained the operations as part of the company's recent acquisition of CNT.

Under the terms of the purchase agreement, Solectron will assume all manufacturing-related assets, equipment and employees associated with the facility.

McDATA currently outsources manufacturing of both its Sphereon and Eclipse product lines to Solectron. McDATA will transfer the remaining obligation for the building lease, all property, plant and equipment associated with the manufacturing process, and all manufacturing employees to Solectron on the close of the transaction, which is expected to take place this week. 
 
"This is extremely positive for all parties involved," said John Kelley, McDATA president, chairman and CEO. "The agreement completes McDATA's objective to outsource CNT's manufacturing operations significantly ahead of plan, and allows us to expand our relationship with a very reliable and high-quality manufacturing partner. With the transfer of the Lumberton operations and assets to Solectron, we are tracking ahead of our stated goal of achieving 70% of our targeted headcount reductions by July 31."