After being skeptical of WiMAX for quite sometime, Cisco Systems (CSCO) is changing its tune, and has decided to play the WiMAX game. It is doing so by buying Navini Networks for a whopping $330 million in cash and stock. It was apparently one of the worst-kept secrets out there; the analyst community had been talking about the deal for nearly a fortnight.
Why this change of heart? One could point to United Nations/ITU giving their blessing to WiMAX. WiMAX is becoming quite popular with operators in emerging markets, where little or no prior infrastructure exists. Countries like India, China, Brazil and others are looking to building WiMAX-based wireless broadband networks. Of course, Cisco can’t let rivals like Motorola (MOT) get all the business.
Cisco posted this video on their blog explaining why they bought Navini.
9 comments so far
8:34 AM PT
Goole Web apps - Cisco IT infrastructure and ORACLE - enterprise systems — where would MS fits now?
10:29 AM PT
[...] to the WiMAX Om Malik of GigaOM, among others, are reporting today that Cisco has finally announced their $330 million acquisition [...]
11:53 AM PT
Om - good market update here. Have you looked into HLRs, HSSs and subscriber data consolidation as catalysts for capitalizing on services roll out? PR guy for Apertio here - provides preferred solutions to many, including Motorola, around the globe with open infrastructure applications including Apertio One-HLR, One-HSS, etc.
12:16 PM PT
great job. Good decision.
5:13 AM PT
[...] Cisco buys into WiMax [...]
12:42 PM PT
[...] Chambers is bullish about prospects of wireless in India. (It might also explain why the company snapped up WiMAX vendor Navini Networks for $330 million.) There is a potential to leapfrog technology in the developing world that is very different from [...]
4:16 PM PT
[...] bumps in the road for WiMAX, top executives from major WiMAX backers Intel, Sprint Nextel and Cisco all said at CES this week that they are bullish on the wireless technology’s future, albeit [...]
5:15 PM PT
[...] regional WiMax carrier Xanadoo. Cisco gained its WiMax network equipment through its purchase of Navini Networks in 2007. Xanadoo had been a customer of Navini for its previous generation of WiMax equipment, so [...]
1:23 AM PT
[...] Chambers noted in his detailed answer to this question that one of the reasons Cisco bought a WiMax company was to respond to this [...]
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