Univastu India scoops up what's left of Cambium for $5.1M

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Roughly a month after Airspan swooped in to acquire a big piece of financially troubled Cambium Networks, Univastu India followed to snatch up what was left.

In a deal finalized last week, Univastu acquired Cambium's ePMP fixed wireless broadband platform, enterprise Wi-Fi switching business and its cnMaestro network management platform. Univastu noted in a regulatory filing that cnMaestro will be available to both Airspan and Univastu via "applicable transaction and transition arrangements." That dual availability is raising questions about future support and development given that cnMaestro has been used to support multiple, distinct hardware product lines.

The Cambium brand will live on. Univastu, a publicly traded India-based infrastructure and engineering company, noted that Cambium Networks will now operate as a standalone subsidiary, and will be used to help Univastu expand into the telecom connectivity sector. Univastu told Indian regulators that existing Cambium employees of the acquired businesses will stay on, but didn't say how many and where those people will be based. Airspan took on more than 135 Cambium employees via its separate transaction.

Related:Airspan swoops in to rescue Cambium Networks

"We look forward to guiding the rebirth of Cambium Networks and enabling it once again to be a leading wireless networking solution provider," Pradeep Khandagale, Univastu's chairman and managing director, said in a statement.

'Unexpected buyer'

On September 30, Univastu disclosed that it had agreed to pay $5.1 million in cash (with a $300,000 non-refundable deposit) for the assets. While $5.1 million isn't a huge amount to pay for what have been distressed assets, it's not an insignificant sum for Univastu, which generated Q1 revenues of about 1.04 billion Indian rupees (roughly 103.72 crore), or about US$12.2 million.

Though the workings of that deal have been public for months, industry analysts still view Univastu as a surprising suitor.

"Univastu is an unexpected buyer. It's a construction and infrastructure company with no track record in wireless networking, and Cambium is its first move outside that core business," Adlane Fellah, founder and chief analyst at Maravedis LLC, told Light Reading via email. "A stable parent isn't the same as a stable product roadmap. The real test is whether Univastu funds the R&D, firmware support, and channel investment that ePMP and Enterprise Wi-Fi need to stay competitive."

Teresa Mastrangelo, principal analyst at BroadbandTrends, also saw this as an interesting development, but reckons that Univastu will use the assets to flesh out its infrastructure capabilities amid some recent projects for stadiums, metro stations and office buildings.

Related:Cambium nabs some Huawei 'rip and replace' business

Keeping Cambium's base among Univastu's challenges

Fellah notes that Univastu is acquiring a well-known brand and a large installed base. "That base is the asset. Keeping it is the challenge," he said.

As Univastu is a newcomer to a business segment that Cambium's assets bring to bear, "I would expect some growing pains," Mastrangelo noted.

Per details shared in September, Univastu moved to acquire the Cambium assets in administration through a UK-based subsidiary. Fellah noted that Cambium's US customer base will be looking for Univastu to provide local assurances.

"The damage to channel confidence is real," he explained. "Competitors have spent the past two months actively courting Cambium customers, and many operators have already started qualifying alternatives. Univastu needs to give partners a clear roadmap, a support commitment, and a reason to stay within the next 90 days, or the migration that's already underway will continue."

Questions about cnMaestro

Airspan's acquisition included Cambium's PMP 450 point-to-point access platform, PTP 670 unlicensed point-to-point backhaul platform, PTP 700 point-to-point systems tailored for defense applications, and the cnWave millimeter wave point-to-point and point-to-multipoint connectivity platform. Airspan said it also took over certain management system and planning software products such as the LINKPlanner (network design), cnHeat (wireless modeling) and cnMaestro (wireless network management).

Both analysts made special note that both Airspan and Univastu will utilize and support cnMasetro.

That likely means that "each company will have its own version that they will continue to develop," Mastrangelo explained.

"The big open question is cnMaestro," Fellah said. "Until both companies spell out who owns it, who supports it, and how the two will coordinate, many customers will hold off on any long-term commitment."

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