In 1983, Francis Shen and Hugh Scholaert bought an engineering consulting company, founding Aastra in
Toronto in 1983. The company provided services to the defense industry. In 1993, the company started to specialise in telecommunications. Aastra went public in Canada in 1996. In 2000, Aastra acquired the assets of Nortel Networks Access Solutions Division including the rights to manufacture phones under the
Nortel name. Then, in 2001, Aastra acquired Lucent Technologies' Digital Video business and Ericsson Cable Modem. Aastra acquired Nortel CVX & CSG Division in 2002 and the ASCOM PBX System Division in 2003. In 2005, 75% of Aastra Technologies' sales were made in Europe, following the purchase that year of the Germany-based the EADS Enterprise Telephony Business and the DeTeWe Telecommunication Systems business. Its other sales shares that year included 17% in the United States, and only 5% in Canada. In 2008, Aastra acquired the enterprise PBX division of
Ericsson, best known for
MD110/MX-ONE Telephony Switch. In January 2014,
Mitel completed its acquisition of Aastra, which has been announced in November 2013. Mitel lists the fate of former Aastra products on its website. ==Awards==