Acterna Sells `Cheetah' to Tollgrade

Cable test and management provider Acterna LLC is selling its "Cheetah"
status- and performance-monitoring product line to fellow test-systems supplier
Tollgrade Communications Inc. for $14.3 million in cash and assumption of
certain liabilities.

In addition to the cash, Tollgrade will pay Acterna as much as $2.4 million
in earn-out based on 2003 performance targets.

The Germantown, Md.-based company is selling the business to focus more on
its communications-testing products.

"Tollgrade is an excellent strategic fit for the status- and
performance-monitoring unit and its employees," said Dave Holly, general manager
of Acterna's cable-networks division. "We are pleased with a transaction that we
believe creates new growth opportunities for the business."

Pittsburgh-based Tollgrade plans to consolidate the Cheetah products into its
"Lighthouse" status-monitoring line, which is based in its new facility in
Sarasota, Fla.

A total of 47 Acterna employees-- mostly engineers and technicians -- will
transition over to Tollgrade.