Ericsson has announced the acquisition of Airvana's EV-DO business in an all-stock deal that adds 38 staff and CDMA software to the Swedish vendor's assets and, in theory, puts to bed a legal issue that has been dogging the Swedish vendor.

Airvana Inc. , a specialist developer of 3G femtocells, sued Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) in February 2012 for $330 million, alleging the misappropriation of its technology to "secretly develop with a Korean partner a knock-off product that would illegally compete with Airvana's." (See Airvana Sues Ericsson.)

Then, in March this year, Airvana won a preliminary injunction against Ericsson that barred the giant vendor from using the specialist vendor's technology. (See Airvana Wins Injunction Against Ericsson.)

Now, though, the two companies are to "jointly seek dismissal of the lawsuit."

Naturally, Ericsson doesn't want to focus on that part of the deal. It says the acquisition "ensures long-term support" for its CDMA customers, as the acquisition brings in-house the Airvana EV-DO technology that Ericsson already uses in its CDMA radio access products. The deal "further strengthens our control over product portfolio, ensuring long-term support to our customers with the ability to better respond to their requirements," noted Ericsson in its official announcement.

— Ray Le Maistre, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading