Exactly a year to the day since its last acquisition, Brocade Communications Systems Inc. is opening its coffers once again to buy Ruckus Wireless Inc., a publicly-traded provider of network access equipment. Its hardware lineup splits two main categories: Heavy-duty outdoor gear and indoor access points that let organizations provide WiFi coverage throughout their premises.

That can be anything from a regular office building to hospitals, as is the case with Ruckus’ numerous healthcare customers. The company’s wireless gear is among the most popular on the market thanks to a slew of built-in automation capabilities that make it relatively straightforward to maintain stable connectivity in a large corporate site. According to the vendor, its indoor access points take only a few hours to set up and are able to mitigate many common types of interference that occur in a busy work environment with minimum manual intervention.

Rucus’ outdoor networking lineup provides similar functionality but is geared towards school campuses, docks and other locations that can’t accommodate the Ethernet infrastructure necessary to support a regular access point. The two product families are complemented by remote management software and a suite of value-added services designed to help customers make more out out of their gear. Among the tools is a reporting platform called SmartCell Insight that provides the ability to store up to 7 years’ worth of Wi-Fi usage logs, which can be analyzed to find ways of improving coverage.

Brocade is paying $1.5 million for the whole shebang, or $1.2 billion when taking into account the roughly $300 million cash pile that Ruckus has amassed over its 12 years in operations. The sum includes a payout of $6.45 per share and stock compensation that together value the access point maker at a 44 percent premium over its last trading price prior to the deal’s announcement. The size of the deal reflects the massive revenue opportunity that Brocade sees in the wireless networking market.

The company increased its sales by only one percent last quarter while Ruckus saw its top line increase 16.6 percent in the same period. The products that Brocade is gaining through the acquisition should help put some life back into its balance sheet and boost its existing businesses in the process by creating new cross-selling opportunities: The vendor will be able to offer its data center networking equipment to Ruckus’ customers, while making the firm’s wireless gear available for its own client base.

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