Cabletron Systems

Cabletron Systems was a New Hampshire, USA-based provider of networking computer equipment that provided one of the major hardware boom stories of the dot-com era before succumbing to competition and breaking up into four subsidiarieis in 2000.

Cabletron was founded in 1983 in a Massachusetts garage by Craig Benson, who later became New Hampshire's governor, and Robert Levine. It moved to Rochester, New Hampshire and at its peak employed 6,600 people. It made and sold routers, network switches and other equipment, but eventually succumbed to competition from companies like Cisco Systems and 3Com..

In 2000 it reorganized as a holding company for networking firms: Enterasys of andover, Massachusetts; Riverstone Networks of Santa Clara, California; Aprisma Management Technologies of Durham, New Hampshire; and GlobalNetwork Technology Services of The Woodlands, Texas.