Brocade has bought Wi-Fi provider Ruckus Wireless in a $1.2billion deal, which it said will bolster its business for 5G and the Internet of Things.
The data storage and virtualisation player has made the acquisition through a mixture of cash and stock. Brocade said the buy would complement its enterprise networking portfolio and well as broaden its reach as a service provider.
Explaining the acquisition, Brocade said it was necessary to reflect the changing needs of businesses. It said wireless was a “critical” access technology to help companies develop new applications.
Brocade said once the acquisition was completed, which is expected in the third quarter of this year, it would be able to offer services from the data centre to the network edge. It would also be able to cross sell across its combined customer bases, spanning large enterprises, higher education, government, hospitality and service providers.
It highlighted 5G, IoT, smart cities, OpenFtm technology for in-building coverage and the convergence of LTE and Wi-Fi as key emerging markets for the combined company.
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It said bringing together Wi-Fi and shared access or unlicensed spectrum was “critical” to deliver demands for coverage, capacity and quality of service.
Brocade CEO Lee Carney said: “This strategic combination will position us to expand our addressable market and technology leadership with Ruckus’ fast-growing wireless LAN products, and supports our vision to deliver market-leading New IP solutions that enable the network to become a platform for innovation.
“History shows that focused, pure-play companies often innovate faster, are more agile, and deliver better value to their customers. With the rapidly evolving requirements of the digital transformation era, we are positioning ourselves to lead where technology is headed. We believe that combining our portfolios will provide significant benefits to our customers and will enable us to accelerate our growth and value creation.”
Ruckus will continue to be led by its current CEO Selina Lo. She will report directly to Brocade CEO Lloyd Carney.