Alvarion(R) Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Wavion, a Leading Provider of Carrier-grade WiFi Solutions

Alvarion Ltd. ALVR -5.51% , a provider of optimized wireless broadband solutions addressing the connectivity, capacity and coverage challenges of public and private networks, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Wavion, an Israel-based technology leader in carrier-grade WiFi applications, for approximately $30 million in cash, including an assumed earn-out. Wavion's revenues for the last twelve months were approximately $16 million. Excluding non-recurring acquisition-related charges, Alvarion expects the acquisition to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings beginning in the second quarter of 2012. This acquisition marks another milestone in the execution of Alvarion's strategic plan aimed at shifting its primary focus from WiMAX-based RAN solutions to becoming a multi-technology wireless broadband solution powerhouse. Capacity and Coverage Challenges Multiplying Alvarion believes that the explosion of broadband data usage is creating an ever-growing set of coverage and capacity challenges that cannot be addressed effectively by any single technology. This is true for all types of wireless broadband networks from Tier 1 mobile carriers to wireless internet service providers, enterprises, governments and municipalities, and private network operators in various vertical markets. Alvarion's strategy is to leverage its years of experience providing carrier-grade solutions to create a unique combination of capabilities, employing multiple complementary technologies, which can be optimized for various types of networks and applications. The advanced WiFi technology provided by Wavion, including its leading edge beamforming capability, has reached a level of maturity and acceptance that makes it an attractive option for addressing the most demanding mission-critical applications. Alvarion intends to combine Wavion's best-of-breed WiFi platform with Alvarion's 4G RAN solution and recently-acquired DAS (distributed antenna systems) capabilities to create a full suite of capacity and coverage solutions that is not available from any other vendor. "Carrier WiFi is one of the fastest growing segments in the telecom equipment industry, and represents a significant new market opportunity for Alvarion," said Adlane Fellah, President, Maravedis. "This market is expected to grow at least 40% annually to about $500 million over the next several years. Alvarion's leadership and global presence in 4G solutions, augmented by Wavion's enhanced WiFi 2.4GHz and 5GHz technology, will allow network operators to address the increasingly complex requirements of wireless broadband networks." Wavion's Strengths Wavion's two-way spatially adaptive beamforming and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technologies, based on the latest 802.11n standard, address the performance, penetration and profitability challenges of today's wireless broadband networks. Wavion's solutions ensure that carriers, service providers, governments and enterprises are able to deploy their wireless networks quickly and effectively, supporting applications such as: -- Seamless cellular offloading -- Business connectivity -- Residential access -- Digital cities -- Video surveillance -- Internet to schools and universities, hotels and resorts, malls and large venues Interference is one of the biggest challenges in deploying WiFi. Wavion's solution provides better coverage, higher capacity and interference immunity, using smart antenna, beamforming and SDMA technologies. "Wavion's field-proven solution is the ideal addition to our portfolio," said Eran Gorev, president and CEO of Alvarion. "Wavion's offering will enable us to leverage our global reach, extensive customer base, and network of go-to-market partners. This acquisition will also position the company in exciting new high-growth segments such as WiFi offload. "Wavion was the obvious choice for implementing the next step in our strategy because its team consists of experts in WiFi with decades of experience and the foresight to anticipate WiFi's emerging role in solving some of the most difficult network capacity and coverage issues. We understand carrier-grade requirements and Wavion's platform was designed from the ground up to provide the type of performance and reliability that is required for the most demanding applications for both public and private networks." "Wavion has a strong team of 75 people and a cutting-edge WiFi product portfolio which we believe will fit well with Alvarion's vision of multi-technology solutions," said Tal Meirzon, CEO of Wavion. "Being a high growth company in a high growth market, we believe we can be one of the growth engines of Alvarion. We look forward to serving customers and partners with a unique combination of expertise and complementary capabilities." Closing is expected before the end of 2011 and is subject to customary closing conditions. Alvarion will finance the acquisition with a $30 million 3-year credit facility from Silicon Valley Bank.