C-COR Sees Need for Speed

About six months ago, C-COR.net Corp. (Nasdaq: CCBL  ) announced that it is embarking on a new five-year plan. Management believes that there will be explosive growth in digital video, Internet services, VOD, HDTV, VoIP, and other services. Moreover, management predicts that these services will be delivered over all-digital, on-demand Internet Protocol (IP) networks.

C-COR has the ambitious goal of providing cutting-edge products, management software, and technical services for this major move toward broadband. To this end, C-COR has been on a buying spree. Recently, the company purchased Lantern Communications, which provides transport solutions for metropolitan area networks. Essentially, the technology makes it easier to manage bandwidth-hungry data, voice, and video traffic.

Then there was the purchase of Alopa Networks, which develops software for end-to-end activation, management, and assurance of digital services. This will be a key for VoIP services.

Yesterday, C-COR announced yet another purchase: Stargus. The company develops sophisticated network and service management solutions for cable broadband networks. For fiscal year 2005, Stargus is anticipated to add about $8 million in net sales and contribute to overall earnings. With the buyout valued at $17 million, C-COR is paying a reasonable valuation for the company, considering it is likely able to sell Stargus' solutions through its customer base of cable companies.

While IP networks offer many advantages, there are still threats. Yesterday, for example, there was an international attack on the infrastructure of Akamai (Nasdaq: AKAM  ) . Major sites like Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO  ) , Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT  ) , Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL  ) , and Google were down for several hours.

As more services go online -- and with the complexities of broadband -- C-COR seems to be headed in the right direction and is not wasting any time getting there.

Fool contributor Tom Taulli is the author of The EDGAR Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements . He does not own shares in any of the stocks mentioned.