By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
Sierra Wireless Completes Sale of AirCard® Assets and Operations
Transaction enables Sierra Wireless to accelerate growth of machine-to-machine (M2M) business
VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Sierra Wireless, Inc. (NAS: SWIR) (TSX: SW) today announced it has completed the sale of substantially all of the assets and operations related to its AirCard® business to NETGEAR®, Inc. (NASDAQGM: NTGR) for $138 million in cash plus approximately $5.9 million in assumed liabilities. The transaction was first announced on January 28, 2013. Sierra Wireless‘s retained business includes its AirPrime™ embedded wireless modules, AirLink® intelligent gateways, and AirVantage™ M2M cloud product lines.
“Sierra Wireless is now an M2M and connected device pure play, focused on providing innovative device-to-cloud solutions that enable customers across a broad range of markets to connect to the ‘Internet of Things’,” said Jason Cohenour, President and CEO of Sierra Wireless. “This transaction provides significant financial capacity to accelerate our growth in M2M – a market in which we are the world leader today, with the industry’s broadest product lineup, and an extensive, blue-chip customer base.”
Sierra Wireless intends to use a substantial portion of the net proceeds from the transaction to continue its acquisition strategy in the M2M market, with the objective of accelerating revenue and earnings growth by strengthening its leadership in existing markets and expanding its position in the M2M value chain. In addition, Sierra Wireless obtained the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange in February 2013 for a Normal Course Issuer Bid to re-purchase shares of the Company and has commenced purchases under this program.
About Sierra Wireless
Sierra Wireless (NAS: SWIR) (TSX: SW) offers industry-leading products and solutions for connected devices and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications over cellular networks. Wireless service providers, equipment manufacturers, enterprises and government organizations around the world depend on us for reliable wireless technology. We offer 2G, 3G and 4G wireless modems, routers and gateways as well as a comprehensive suite of software, tools, and services that ensure our customers can successfully bring wireless applications to market. For more information about Sierra Wireless, visit www.sierrawireless.com.
“AirPrime,” “AirLink,” and “AirVantage” are trademarks of Sierra Wireless. Other product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.