Cisco Systems agreed to acquire Navini Networks, a supplier of WiMAX infrastructure products, for approximately $330 million in cash and assumed options. 
Navini offers a line of WiMAX solutions, including base stations, adaptive antenna arrays, management systems, and subscriber modems, which has been sold to more than 75 customers.
Navini has developed its own patented, "Smart Beamforming" and MIMO technologies, which enhances range and throughput performance of WiMAX, a combination it calls the "Navini Mobile WiMAX Solution". The company claims 2-3 times the coverage area of non-beamforming implementations.
Navini's Ripwave MX product line runs in the 2.3 GHz, 2.5/2.6 GHz, 3.4/3.5GHz and 3.6GHz bands and already supports Wave 2 features in addition to Wave 1 capability. In addition, the platform is capable of supporting beamforming, handover, HARQ, sleep/idle modes, power control, feedback and other advanced features.
Cisco said broadband wireless networks based upon WiMAX have the potential to add millions of new Internet users who cannot be reached economically using copper or fiber infrastructures.
Navini is based in Richardson, Texas.
http://www.navini.com
http://www.cisco.com
- Navini Networks is headed by Roger Dorf, who was most recently the CEO of Celite Systems. Prior to that position, he was the vice president and general manager of Nortel Network's Broadband Access Business Unit (formerly Promatory), as well as president and chief executive officer at Promatory prior to the company's acquisition by Nortel in March of 2000.
- In July 2007, Navini announced the first commercial implementation of its 802.16e Mobile WiMAX software with beamforming. The first deployment is in Panama City, Panama, where operator Liberty Technologies has started implementing Navini's software upgrade to convert their network to 16e.
- Cisco's 2007 acquisitions include: Latigent, Cognio, Reactivity, Broadware, Spanslogic, WebEx, NeoPath Networks, Five Across, and IronPort Systems.
