Cisco To Buy Starent

Time for our afternoon M&A, boys and girls..Cisco to buy wireless technology provider Starent for around $3 billion buckaroonis.

The Net:$35/share; based in Tewskbury, MA; started in 2000, traded publicly since 2007, 74% rise in revenue in 2008 (to $254.1M), big Verizon business partner, focuses on 3G/4G products, WiMax.

The New York Times reports that the deal represents about a 20 percent premium over Starent’s closing price on Monday of $29.03 per share.

It says for Cisco, the acquisition is a major bet that consumers and workers will keeping pulling down ever larger amounts of data onto smartphones and laptops via wireless networks.

Starent’s hardware and software products make it possible to create and manage high-speed data services.

Cisco, the human network…and the lean, mean, hungry M&A integratin’ machine.