Adtran, a Huntsville, Ala.-based telecommunications company, announced Thursday it acquired SmartRG, a Wi-Fi delivery service company with headquarters in Vancouver.
Terms of the stock purchase of SmartRG were not disclosed. The acquisition was finalized Nov. 30.
SmartRG’s approximately 60 employees will not be affected by the sale, said Oleg Buzinover, chief financial officer for SmartRG.
“They are keeping (SmartRG) separate,” Buzinover said. “We will continue to operate as we have in the past.”
Buzinover described Adtran as “a great partner” with an entrepreneurial approach similar to SmartRG.
“This was a great opportunity for us,” he said, adding that employees were told Wednesday of the transaction. “We’re excited for this event and to continue what we’ve been doing.”
SmartRG engineers hardware and software to help connect devices to the internet.
The company traces its roots to a March 2012 transaction in which Silicon Valley networking giant Cisco Systems acquired Vancouver-based ClearAccess, a 2005 startup that provides tools to telecommunication and broadband providers. At the time, an entity called SmartRG Gateways represented ClearAccess’ hardware business.
That entity became SmartRG Inc. with Jeff McInnis appointed as chief executive officer. McInnis remains the company’s CEO. The company has tripled the number of employees since that transaction.
In October 2017, SmartRG announced it would open a new office in downtown Portland with a majority of its employees moving there. About 10 employees remain at the company’s Vancouver headquarters at 501 S.E. Columbia Shores Blvd.
Adtran, traded on Nasdaq, recorded $667 million in 2017 sales.
Privately held SmartRG had revenue of $27.9 million last year and a two-year growth rate of 30.4 percent, said Brad Gevurtz, managing director for the technology investment banking group for D.A. Davidson & Co. in Portland, which served as the financial adviser to SmartRG for the sale.
D.A. Davidson brought SmartRG to market earlier this year, attracting several interested buyers with Adtran emerging as the preferred buyer, Gevurtz said.
The merger and acquisition makes sense because of complementary business strengths, Gevurtz said. But also Adtran wanted to purchase SmartRG because “they wanted to expand their footprint in the Pacific Northwest,” Gevurtz said of the Alabama company, adding that SmartRG is likely to expand its workforce as a result.
