SAN JOSE, Calif.—April 4, 2016—Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) and Ruckus Wireless (NYSE: RKUS) today announced that Brocade has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Ruckus Wireless, Inc. in a cash and stock transaction.
The acquisition will complement Brocade’s enterprise networking portfolio, adding Ruckus’ higher-growth, wireless products to Brocade’s market-leading networking solutions. It will also significantly strengthen Brocade’s strategic presence in the broader service provider space, with Ruckus’ market-leading Wi-Fi position.
Brocade expects the transaction to be accretive to its non-GAAP earnings by its first quarter of fiscal 2017. The Ruckus organization will be led by current Ruckus CEO, Selina Lo, and report directly to Brocade CEO, Lloyd Carney.
As companies move to digitize their business, they need an underlying network architecture that supports business agility. This New IP architecture enables the network to become a platform for innovation and for developing, delivering, and securing new applications. Wireless is a critical access technology and the combination of Brocade and Ruckus creates a new type of pure-play networking company, with solutions spanning from the heart of the data center to the wireless network edge.
In addition, after close, the acquisition is expected to accelerate cross-selling activities into the respective companies’ partner and customer bases, opening up new revenue opportunities for the combined company across a variety of verticals, including large enterprises, K-12 and higher education, government, hospitality, and service providers
Further, the acquisition will strengthen Brocade’s ability to pursue emerging market opportunities around 5G mobile services, Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Cities, OpenGtm technology for in-building wireless, and LTE/Wi-Fi convergence. Brocade and Ruckus believe that the integration of Wi-Fi and the use of shared access or lightly licensed spectrum are critical to meeting the ever-growing demand for coverage, capacity, and consistency required for next-generation mobile services. These elements are important in Brocade’s strategy to disrupt and enhance the way edge services are created and delivered.
“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,” said Lloyd Carney, chief executive officer of Brocade.
“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.”
“The combination of our two companies will create an exciting new thought leader in networking and significant opportunities for our stakeholders to participate in the combined company’s future growth potential,” said Selina Lo, president and CEO of Ruckus.
“We operate in adjacent segments of the larger networking market with a number of common customers for our complementary products, and have a successful track record of working together. We are excited for the opportunity to join the Brocade team and to jointly deliver innovative, value-added solutions to our enterprise and service provider customers.”
For customers:
From Ruckus Wireless: Once the transaction closes, you will be able to rely on the combined company for market-leading networking solutions that extend from your storage networks to your data center, campus, and wireless edge.
Both companies remain committed to partnering across the industry and you will continue to enjoy the flexibility that our open, partner-centric strategy brings. Whether you prefer single-vendor or multi-vendor solutions for your network infrastructure, the new Brocade with Ruckus will be better positioned to serve you.
We’re also not planning any near-term changes to the sales and support you’ve come to rely on. Ruckus solutions will continue to be sold and supported by the current Ruckus teams, and Brocade solutions will continue to be sold and supported by the current Brocade teams. Until closing, both companies will continue to operate independently to serve our customers.
This is an extract taken from the full press release by Ruckus Wireless.