This article was written by Don Day of BoiseDev.
A Boise-based company will get a new parent company, and its owners will get $1.1 billion in their pockets.
Sweden’s Ericsson purchased wireless solution provider Cradlepoint for $1.1 billion.
The deal will bring Cradlepoint’s lineup of networking products designed to work with LTE and 5G cellular connections under Ericsson’s roof.
While Cradlepoint’s website says the business is “now part of Ericsson,” the deal will not close until the fourth quarter of this year.
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Cradlepoint employs about 650 people, with its headquarters in the Boise Plaza building in Downtown Boise. The company launched in 2006, and gets its name from its first product – a literal cradle that turned cell phones into Wi-Fi hot spots.
Purchase after collaboration
The two companies first started to collaborate more than ten years ago, according to a news release.
“We have led the way in bringing the power of cellular networks and technologies to enterprise and public sector customers – helping them connect beyond the limits of traditional wired WANs,” Cradlepoint CEO George Mulhern said, touting his company. “Ericsson with its global 5G leadership is a great match for us and I am very excited to continue to scale and expand our business together.”
“The acquisition of Cradlepoint complements our existing offerings and is key to our strategy of helping customers grow the value of their 5G network investments,” Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm said. “Ericsson is uniquely positioned to build on Cradlepoint’s leadership position in Wireless Edge and the wireless WAN market.”
Ericsson said it will retain Cradlepoint’s employees, the brand name, and keep the unit’s headquarters in Boise. The Swedish company employs nearly 100,000 people worldwide, and was first founded 144 years ago.
Cradlepoint’s investors include Highway 12 Ventures, Gem State Angel Fund, Caprock Group, TCV and others according to Crunchbase.
