Boise tech firm Cradlepoint sold for $1.1 billion to Ericsson

Sharon Fisher//September 18, 2020//

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Cradlepoint is headquarted in the Boise Plaza building. Photo by Catie Clark

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article had an incorrect price.

Boise-based Cradlepoint, a Boise-based technology company that makes wide-area networking and 5G hardware and software, has been sold to Ericsson for $1.1 billion, which would make it the biggest technology sale in Idaho history.

The transaction expected to close before the end of the fourth quarter, 2020, subject to closing conditions. The purchase price, which is funded from Ericsson’s cash-in-hand, is paid in full on closing.

Cradlepoint will become a fully owned subsidiary of Ericsson while continuing to operate under its existing brand. Cradlepoint employees will remain within the company. It will be part of Ericsson’s Business Area Technologies & New Businesses.

Kevin Learned, a partner with the Sage Growth Capital revenue-based investment fund and a long-time member of Boise’s angel community, had said earlier this year that the big exit of 2020 was likely to be Cradlepoint, which has been discussed as an IPO candidate since at least 2015. The company has received millions of dollars in several rounds of investment, including from the Boise Angel Alliance. Most recently, it received $89 million from TCV, a technology investment group that has been involved with the IPOs of a number of other companies. Cradlepoint has also partnered with Sonim Technologies, which went public earlier in 2019.

Previously, the biggest exit had been April 2019, when ICONIQ Capital made a majority investment in Truckstop.com. While the price was not revealed, industry estimates pegged it at $1 billion.