With $21.7M more under its belt, the Wi-Fi offload vendor is eyeing a public offering and narrowing in on the service providers
Wi-Fi offload vendor Ruckus Wireless Inc. is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO), having just raised US$21.7 million in funding and added two new members to its board.
The $21.7 million comes from a mezzanine round of funding that David Callisch, Ruckus' VP of corporate marketing, says the company wanted to raise before it began working toward filing. Ruckus has been profitable for the past six quarters, and the company earned $120 million in its last fiscal year and about half that the year before, a source close to the company says.
"We don’t need the money but wanted it to enter into the service provider market," he says, adding that a lot of the vendor's resources still go into its traditional customer base, the enterprise.
Ruckus also confirmed Tuesday it has added two new members to its board: former Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) CTO Dick Lynch and George Atoun, formerly of Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC). The company currently has 450 employees worldwide.
Why this matters
Wi-Fi offload is of utmost importance to the wireless operators now as they look to relieve congestion on their wireless networks. Fairly new to the service provider scene, Ruckus has scored some high-profile wireless operator customers, including a massive deployment KDDI Corp. in Japan. (See Ruckus Makes Over KDDI With Wi-Fi Offload.)
Ruckus does, however, face stiff competition for service provider attention from the likes of Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), BelAir Networks Inc. , Wavion Inc. and others. Ruckus is planning to announce news at this month's Mobile World Congress, but it will be far from the only Wi-Fi vendor making waves. Rumors suggest Ericsson may be ready to announce an acquisition of BelAir at the Wi-Fi-centric show as well. (See MWC = Mobile Wi-Fi Congress and Ericsson Sizing Up BelAir Buy for Wi-Fi Push.)
For more
Read up on Ruckus's road to IPO below, and check our MWC site for all the latest Wi-Fi and MWC news.
Wave Goodbye to Free Wi-Fi
Leading Lights Finalists: Private Company of the Year
Wi-Fi's New Lease of Life
Interview: Ruckus Wireless CEO Selina Lo
Ruckus Ready to Rumble With Docsis 3.0
Wireless Operators Embrace Wi-Fi as Their Own
Ruckus Takes a Run at Cisco & BelAir
— Sarah Reedy, Senior Reporter, Light Reading Mobile
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