Arris takes Ruckus in from the cold for $800 million

Like a drifter just looking for a place to belong, Ruckus Wireless has been bought for the second time in less than a year. This time Arris has chucked $800 million at Broadcom to pick up Ruckus as well as its ICX switch biz.

This time last year everyone at Ruckus and Brocade were getting all excited about what was about to happen – a $1.2 billion transaction combining a networking hardware specialist with a feisty and exciting wireless tech gang. All was looking rosy; but then Broadcom stuck its oar in by picking up Brocade (and therefore Ruckus too) for a cushty $6 billion.

Broadcom even openly admitted it wanted rid of Brocade’s entire IP networking biz, of which Ruckus formed a major part. So that probably led to a few awkward scenarios with Daddy Broadcom presumably treating Ruckus as the ginger step child it never really ever liked.

Well now good ole Uncle Arris has stepped in to take care of Ruckus. Granted, Broadcom/Brocade made a loss of roughly $400 million, but at least it’s now gotten rid of a business unit it made immediately apparent it never wanted. Arris has said it’ll be creating a new business unit to cater for the arrival of Ruckus. Since it is traditionally more of a cable company than a wireless one – it is leaving current Ruckus COO Dan Rabinovitsj in charge of the new wireless networking and wired switching technology business unit.

“We have a history of partnering with Ruckus and the talented employees that created this powerful brand and platform,” said Arris CEO Bruce McClelland. “We are excited to welcome about 1,600 new employees and an extensive network of enterprise channel partners to the ARRIS family.”

“ARRIS is a leader powering today’s digital world, and this combination signifies a win-win for Ruckus Wireless and ICX switching employees, partners and customers,” said Ruckus’s Dan Rabinovitsj. “Joining the ARRIS team will allow us to accelerate the pace of innovation and expand our industry-leading networking portfolio, leveraging ARRIS resources and scale.”

To be fair to the dudes and dudettes over at Light Reading, they totally called this one like a year ago.