Belden (NYSE: BDC) acquires award-winning WLAN infrastructure provider Trapeze Networks for $133M

Jim Vogt "Our customers can now be assured of continued product innovation and new capabilities from the combined resources of Belden and Trapeze."

Belden (NYSE: BDC), a world-class manufacturer of products for the specialty electronics and data networking markets, is acquiring Castile company Trapeze Networks for $133 million. The acquisition builds on Belden's market-leading position as a complete signal transmission solutions provider by adding a recognized leader in the wireless LAN market.

"During the past six years, enterprise customers around the world have invested in Trapeze Networks’ Smart Mobile because they can depend on it for constant connectivity and reliable mobility,” said Jim Vogt, President and CEO, Trapeze. “The superior performance and cost benefits of our highly acclaimed wireless LAN products have fueled our global growth.  Our customers can now be assured of continued product innovation and new capabilities from the combined resources of Belden and Trapeze."

"We believe the acquisition of Trapeze Networks uniquely positions Belden to offer our enterprise customers tailored connectivity solutions that benefit from blending the strengths of copper, fiber and wireless technologies,” added John Stroup, President and CEO, Belden.  “This will make Belden the world's largest unified wired and wireless solutions provider and will provide expanded market access for Trapeze Networks' Smart Mobile solutions.”

Trapeze Networks was recognized frequently for its pioneering products including Frost & Sullivan’s Most Advanced, Enterprise-class WLAN award and Gartner positioning of Trapeze in its Visionaries Quadrant.

Castile congratulates Jim and his team on their success. [More Info]

Castile leads $13M round for fixed mobile convergence pioneer
Agito Networks

Agito Networks has closed a series B financing raising approximately $13 million. Castile Ventures led the round with original investor Battery Ventures and new investor ITX International Holdings participating.  The monies raised will fund Agito’s enterprise fixed mobile convergence product development and market expansion. Carl Stjernfeldt has joined the board of directors.

Agito is bringing to market a unique fixed mobile convergence platform that enables enterprises to reduce cellular expenses by using their WLAN networks for voice communications.  The company's award-winning solution provides users with the same experience they expect from a cell phone network while ensuring that in-building calls stay on the enterprise WLAN, providing transparent roaming between enterprise WLAN and mobile carrier networks, and eliminating dropped or poor quality calls. 

According to Executive Chairman David Leonard:  “This investment is important for Agito as it looks to continue to expand and penetrate key markets.  The valuable perspective and experience that Carl brings to the board will serve us well.  In addition, having ITX International on board opens up a wealth of channels in overseas markets, which we intend to fully leverage.” [More Info]

IT government, risk and compliance provider Agiliance raises $10M in financing led by Castile

Patrick J. Conte "We are seeing tremendous momentum on all fronts of the company as customer demand for IT GRC products is creating a huge market opportunity"

Agiliance, a provider of IT governance, risk, and compliance (IT GRC) solutions, closed a $10 million round of funding led by Castile Ventures with participation by existing investors Intel Capital, Walden International and Red Rock Ventures.  Nina Saberi has joined the board of directors.  
 
IT GRC is expected to become a strategic necessity for large enterprises as they seek to improve their IT governance and manage the risks inherent in their IT infrastructure.  This new segment builds on and leverages earlier generations of security and compliance infrastructure, such as platforms from previous Castile portfolio companies GeoTrust and Network Intelligence.  Industry analyst Gartner predicts IT GRC will grow aggressively with a 70% increase in 2008 alone.

“We are seeing tremendous momentum on all fronts of the company as customer demand for IT GRC products is creating a huge market opportunity,” said Patrick J. Conte, CEO, Agiliance.  “I am very pleased that Nina has joined the board.  With her deep domain knowledge and experiences as both an entrepreneurial CEO and VC, Nina is a valued addition.”

Castile participates in $12.5M round for mobile 2.0 innovator Funambol

Fabrizio Capobianco "This substantial investment validates our technology, business model and market direction."

Funambol, a provider of mobile 2.0 messaging software, closed on $12.5 million of series B funding led by mobile-focused venture capital firm Nexit Ventures.  Castile participated as a new investor and was joined by existing investors Walden International and HIG Ventures. The company will use this financing to continue growth in the push email market, to advance product R&D and to accelerate global expansion, particularly in Europe and Asia.  

Funambol's mobile messaging software is powered by the world's largest open source mobile software community, which the company harnesses to support an unprecedented number of mobile handsets.  The company's push email, PIM synchronization and ad enablement capabilities help service providers deliver new wireless services and monetize mass market users. The market potential for the company's mobile messaging solutions is huge, with fewer than two percent of the world's 3.3 billion mobile users currently accessing email on their mobile phone.

“This substantial investment validates our technology, business model and market direction,” said Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO, Funambol. “With this funding, we have strengthened our financial resources to enable us to add geographic support in global markets where we see significant demand for mass market open source push email.”

Funambol was recently selected by AOL to help with synchronization for AOL's online and mobile mail services using Funambol's open source software and its scalable synchronization platform. [More Info]

EXFO (NASDAQ: EXFO) completes acquisition of Brix Networks

EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ: EXFO; TSX: EXF), the second-largest provider of portable test and measurement solutions in the global telecommunications industry, has completed its acquisition of Castile portfolio company Brix Networks. 

“Given our unique value proposition in the IP service assurance industry and EXFO’s leadership on the test and measurement side with NSPs, the combined entity should be a significant player in the test, measurement and service assurance industry,” said Tom Pincince, President and CEO, Brix Networks. 

According to EXFO’s Chairman, President and CEO Germain Lamonde, the acquisition supports the company's goal of transforming itself into a best-of-class, next-generation network technology and market leader testing the protocol stack all the way up to the application layer and across the full technology lifecycle for network equipment manufacturers and network service providers.

Castile portfolio company Brix Networks had grown to become a leading supplier of IP service assurance technology for telecom companies, mobile service providers, cable TV operators and large enterprises.  Brix's solutions enable these network operators to guarantee the successful launch and profitable, ongoing operation of their VoIP, IPTV and managed services.  We congratulate Tom and his team on their success. [More Info]

Sandbridge opens Boston Development Center

To gain access to the area’s deep pool of engineering talent, Castile portfolio company Sandbridge Technologies has opened a new development center in Boston’s technology corridor.  This new facility will be focused on further development of the company’s latest generation of chips for 4th generation (4G) cell phone networks, currently sampling to major handset OEMs.  According to Sandbridge CTO and founder John Glossner, who is relocating to Boston from the company’s Tarrytown, NY headquarters:  “The area’s exceptional talent will play a major role in fueling the next phase of the company’s growth as the wireless world transitions to a new generation of products and services with unprecedented capabilities.”