Extreme Networks closes $55m acquisition of Zebra's wireless LAN business

Extreme buys customers, personnel and technology from Zebra's wireless LAN business

Networking vendor Extreme Networks has completed its buyout of Zebra Technologies' wireless LAN business for $55m (£45m).

Extreme has acquired customers, personnel and technology from Zebra, which sees the vendor extending into new verticals including transportation and logistics, retail, and broader hospitality.

Headquartered in San Jose, Extreme was founded in 1996 primarily as a switching company, before branching into software-based networking.

"This exciting acquisition solidifies Extreme's position as the third-largest provider in our target enterprise campus market and creates numerous growth opportunities for expanded solutions and services offerings for our customers," said Ed Meyercord, president and CEO of Extreme Networks.

"The addition of the WLAN assets increases our total addressable market to $9.4bn in one of the fastest-growing segments of the networking industry and expands our bench with talented key management, experienced wireless industry experts and partners, and a strong base of blue-chip customers."

Zebra is headquartered in Illinois and specialises in tracking solutions including printers and barcode scanners.

Mike Pullon, chief executive of one of its UK distributors Varlink, was cautious about the move.

"The Zebra story, of having all the elements of a solution in terms of handheld printers and the wireless backbone that held it all together, is a story that we were enjoying selling," he explained. "So to hear that [Zebra] was disposing of that part of the business was a surprise and a disappointment.

"We certainly have a number of resellers that enjoy selling the full suite of Zebra products and I'm sure some of them will be able to continue selling it from Extreme, but equally there will be a number who aren't able to move to the new channel and will instead move to other wireless backbones. We've had no contact with [Extreme] and we are not sure whether they want the current Zebra distributors to continue selling the products with their badge on it. There are going to be changes but I'm not sure what they mean for us yet."