Innovative Outdoor Mesh Solutions Target Latency-Sensitive Voice and Video Applications
BEIJING -- (BUSINESS WIRE) --
Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARUN), a global leader in distributed enterprise network solutions, today announced the execution of a definitive agreement to purchase Azalea Networks, a leading supplier of outdoor mesh networks. The acquisition includes highly differentiated mesh products for critical outdoor industrial applications in the logistics, manufacturing, petrochemical, public safety, smart grid, and transportation sectors. These products will enable Aruba to deliver secure mobility solutions that span from indoor carpeted spaces to the outdoor industrial enterprise. The acquisition includes an operations center in Beijing, staffed by world-class engineers, which will complement Aruba's existing R&D centers in Bangalore and Silicon Valley.
"Azalea is one of China's leading mesh providers, and has proven in successful deployments across the country that it understands local customer needs," said Dominic Orr, Aruba's President and CEO. "We intend to build on that success by using Aruba's considerable resources to further expand our presence in the country. It also brings me great personal satisfaction that Aruba now has a development center in China. I was born in Macau and grew up in Greater China, and the Beijing operations center will allow us to tap into China's deep pool of highly talented engineers."
In a mesh network, data packets hop wirelessly from radio to radio. Azalea's innovative mesh technology allows it to also carry latency-sensitive video and voice traffic, with full fidelity, over long distances. The value of this capability has been field-proven in demanding applications like the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, in which 600 mesh nodes provided voice, video, and Wi-Fi access over 19 square miles (50 square kilometers) of the city.
"Enterprises have primarily focused WLAN deployments on indoor spaces, but outdoor applications loom large," said Matthias Machowinski, Directing Analyst for Enterprise Voice and Data at Infonetics Research. "The economic recovery, the need for ubiquitous connectivity, and emerging applications like smart grid and video surveillance are going to accelerate outdoor wireless infrastructure deployments by enterprises in the coming years. Azalea's mesh technology will enable Aruba to provide an integrated, enterprise-wide wireless infrastructure that addresses both indoor and outdoor applications."
"We selected Azalea for our video surveillance project because it was the only solution that could reliably deliver broadcast-quality video across our large facility," said Mr. Zhang Jie, Director of Telecommunication Systems at Shenzhen Power Design Institute of China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd. "It was also important to us that Azalea's technology was developed in China and its products built locally. With this acquisition, Azalea will gain Aruba's worldwide brand identity and sales channels, and industrial customers across the globe will benefit from this truly differentiated technology."
About Aruba Networks
Aruba is the global leader in distributed enterprise networks. Its award-winning portfolio of campus, branch/teleworker, and mobile solutions simplify operations and secure access to all corporate applications and services - regardless of the user's device, location, or network. This dramatically improves productivity and lowers capital and operational costs.
Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com. For real-time news updates follow Aruba on Twitter, Facebook, or the Green Island News Blog.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements about the expectations, beliefs, financial plans, intentions and strategies of Aruba relating to its proposed acquisition of Azalea. Such forward-looking statements include statements regarding future product offerings and potential benefits of current and future product offerings. These statements reflect Aruba's current beliefs and are based on current information available to us. The ability of Aruba to achieve these business objectives involves many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. In particular, while the companies have executed a definitive agreement, there is no assurance that they will complete the transaction. If the companies do not receive the necessary approvals or fail to satisfy conditions for closing, the transaction will terminate. Other risks and uncertainties include the failure to achieve expected synergies and efficiencies of operations; employee retention and maintenance of the business of Azalea before the closing of the transaction; the ability of Aruba to retain and motivate key employees of Azalea; the ability to coordinate strategy and resources between Aruba and Azalea; loss of any Azalea customers; the ability to manage the integration of products and operations between Aruba and Azalea; timely development and acceptance of products and services and their feature sets; and other risks that are described from time to time in Aruba's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
© 2010 Aruba Networks, Inc. AirWave®, Aruba Networks®, Aruba Mobility Management System®, Bluescanner, For Wireless That Works®, Mobile Edge Architecture, People Move. Networks Must Follow., The All-Wireless Workplace Is Now Open For Business, RFprotect, Green Island, and The Mobile Edge Company® are trademarks of Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
CONTACT:
Networks, Inc.
Michael Tennefoss, +1-408-754-8034
mtennefoss@arubanetworks.com
or
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Patty Oien, +1-415-358-2482
poien@breakawaycom.com
KEYWORDS: Asia Pacific China