Carrier Access has acquired Mangrove Systems for $8 million in cash, the company announced today. The news comes more than a month after Mangrove told its suppliers it was ceasing operations.

Mangrove’s Piranha 100 and 600 multiprotocol label-switching (MPLS) access products—which use pseudowires to handle a variety of legacy and packet-based traffic such as ATM and Ethernet--will become the EdgeFlex 100 and 600.

“Mangrove Systems brings several early-stage global customer expansion opportunities to Carrier Access in the Asia-Pacific and [Europe, Middle East and Africa] markets,” Nancy Pierce, Carrier Access Corporate Development Officer, said in a statement issued today.

Mangrove emerged in 2003 with more than $20 million in funding from investors including Highland Capital, Columbia Capital and Silicon Valley Bank. It was founded by Jonathan Reeves, the founder of Sahara Networks (which was acquired by Cascade Communications for $212 million in 1997) and Sirocco Systems (which was acquired by Sycamore Networks for about $3 billion).

Mangrove is only the latest vendor of MPLS-based access gear acquired in recent years, joining Riverstone Networks, Metrobility and Laurel Networks.

Carrier Access has hired 30 Mangrove employees to continue sales, support and development of their products. It plans to use Mangrove’s existing location in Wallingford, Conn., for the development of future products.