Airgo Purchase Pricing (Again)Airgo Purchase Pricing (Again)

2:30 PM -- It is still not exactly clear what Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM) is paying for its buyout of MIMO pioneer Airgo Networks Inc. Most people seem to think, however, it was on the low side of the $100 million to $400 million range I put in my last blog on the topic. (See What Price Airgo?)

Airgo, you may rememember, has never officially said how much it received in funding since it started in 2000 as Woodside Networks. According to my calculations, though, the company must have recieved at least $130 million in funding.

This is in line with what most young chip companies developing three generations of product might expect to burn through. Silicon is an expensive business, dontcha know?

Which may make you wonder what kind of return on their investment Airgo's backers received.

I also wonder what Greg Raleigh, Airgo's CEO, might do next. Raleigh already had one bite of the multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) cherry with Clarify Wireless, which sold to Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) in 1998 for $153 million. Who's to say that he may not take another spin on the smart-antenna wheel?— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung