Ciena acquired the telecommunications company AstraCom Inc. in 1997 for $13.1 million. Fourteen of AstraCom's engineers signed four-year contracts with Ciena, and joined the company's new research and development team in Alpharetta, Georgia. In early 1998, the company acquired Norcross, Georgia-based ATI Telecom International Ltd. and its subsidiary Alta Telecom in a transaction worth $52.5 million. Alta's engineering and installation products were used by service providers for switching, transport, and wireless communications; the company continued to operate as a subsidiary of Ciena. Ciena purchased Terabit Technology Inc., a producer of detectors for data transmission based in Santa Barbara, California, for $11.7 million in April 1998. The company acquired Cupertino, California-based Lightera Networks Inc. and Marlborough, Massachusetts-based Omnia Communications Inc. for $980 million in stock in 1999.