- Privately-held Airspan is keeping quiet about the purchase price
- Corning’s wireless business includes distributed antenna systems (DAS) and small cell RAN products
- Airspan expects carriers and others to increase their investments in 5G indoor solutions
Talk about a new lease on life. Airspan Networks wasn’t in great shape a couple years ago thanks to the slower-than-expected rise of revenues from open Radio Network Access (RAN) and private networks. The Boca Raton, Florida-based company saw its global workforce dwindle from about 800 to just over 300.
But it completed a rather quick Chapter 11 bankruptcy process and emerged last year with a new owner in Fortress Investment Group and $85.4 million in equity financing. Now, it’s buying Corning’s wireless business.
Specifically, Airspan entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Corning’s 6000 and 6200 distributed antenna systems (DAS) and SpiderCloud 4G and 5G small cell RAN products.
“This acquisition is a strategic step for Airspan, reinforcing our leadership in in-building connectivity and expanding our ability to serve enterprises and mobile network operators,” said Airspan President and CEO Glenn Laxdal in a statement.
Airspan didn’t disclose the purchase price. The transaction, subject to the usual regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025.
It’s a big deal for Airspan
At a macro level, the Corning deal doesn’t change the landscape much for the mobile infrastructure market, said Recon Analytics analyst Daryl Schoolar. However, “looking at it purely from the Airspan level, it is a big deal,” he told Fierce, referring to Laxdal’s recent comments about growth in open RAN and private networks.
“The acquisition of Corning’s wireless assets strengthens Airspan in those areas, especially private networks," he said. "Not only does Airspan get the assets, I would assume it also will take over some of Corning’s ongoing commercial relationships as well."
Indeed, Airspan said Corning’s wireless business comes with a product portfolio of over 10,000 installations, as well as relationships with major mobile operators, public venues and enterprise customers. There's also a patent portfolio spanning more than 15 years.
What will not come with the acquisition are the brand names: SpiderCloud for small cells and Everon for DAS.
A spokesperson for Airspan said they can’t use them, citing a “Corning trademark with limited license agreement.” Instead, they plan to come up with new branding names “more aligned with Airspan.”
Dang. We were looking forward to some “Spidey”-themed imagery around in-building solutions at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. At any rate, we’ll just have to make do with the other main themes at Airspan’s booth in Hall 2 of the confab: open RAN and private networks.
Who knows? Maybe there will be some SuperRan heroes roaming the show floor.