Sentient Networks, Inc., was an American networking hardware company that manufactured of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Frame Relay concentrators and switches for central offices. Founded in 1995 in Sarasota, Florida, the company soon after moved to San Jose, California. It was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1999.
History
Sentient Networks was founded in 1995 by Nimish Shah, who previously an employee of Loral Data Systems in Sarasota, Florida, before the latter subsidiary was shut down. He founded Sentient in Tampa Bay, Florida; the company soon saw venture capital backing from companies such as Sequoia Capital Accel Partners, AT&T, and Ameritech. By late 1996, the company employed 35 and had leased a 6,000-square-foot building in Sarasota for its headquarters and a 1,000-square-foot facility in San Jose, California, as a regional office. In September 1996, the company moved its entire operations to a 26,000-square-foot facility in San Jose.
Cisco Systems, also of San Jose, announced their intent to acquire on April 8, 1999. Sentient at that point had 102 employees; its CEO was Greg McAdoo. Sentient's employees joined the Multi-Service Switching business unit (MSSBU) of Cisco, which was the part of Cisco created by their acquisition of StrataCom.