Cisco to Buy Starent Networks
Posted by Jesse Ward on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 · 
·
· 
Cisco Systems Inc. announced this morning that it will buy Starent Networks Corp., which helps wireless carriers support smart phones, for $2.9 billion.
Starent, based in Tewksbury, Mass., makes equipment that allows carriers to tie their wireless networks to the Internet. Cisco is paying $35 per share in cash, approximately a 20% premium over Starent’s closing price on Monday of $29.03 per share. The deal is expected to close early next year.
For Cisco, the acquisition is a gamble that end users will continue to download ever larger amounts of data onto smartphones and laptops via wireless networks. “We have had a huge explosion in data traffic,” said Ned Hooper, Cisco’s chief strategy officer. “We expect the market for mobile data to double every year through 2013.”
It is the second major acquisition in two weeks for Cisco. On October 1, it announced a deal to buy Tandberg ASA, a leading maker of videoconferencing gear, for $3 billion.
Read the release.
Related posts: