Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) has announced plans to acquire wireless LAN switch startup Airespace Inc. for $450 million in stock and assumed options.

Cisco announced the deal Wednesday after the market closed.

Unstrung reported late last week that the networking giant was finalizing a deal for Airespace (see Cisco Buying Airespace?). The startup has been seeing rapid growth in the enterprise wireless LAN space and is ranked as the third largest 802.11 equipment provider after Cisco and Symbol Technologies Inc. (NYSE: SBL) by some analysts (see Synergy: Switches Sizzle ).

Get the rest of the story at Unstrung.

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung