Sweden-based Ericsson, a global information and communication technology company, has acquired Cradlepoint, a cloud-delivered LTE and 5G wireless network from Mercato Partners of Cottonwood Heights. Boise-based Cradlepoint was a portfolio company of Mercato’s Traverse Fund III. The sale price was reported as $1.1 billion.
This marks the second $1 billion-plus acquisition of a Mercato Partners Traverse Fund company and the third overall in 2020. The first came in April during the onset of the pandemic, as Salt Lake-based Galileo Financial Technologies was acquired by fintech giant SoFi for $1.2 billion. Utah-based Central Logic was acquired by Rubicon Technology Partners in June.
This transaction highlights Mercato’s Traverse Fund’s strategy of seeking opportunities in underserved and overlooked markets and applying stage-specific guidance to help them achieve transformative growth, according to Joe Kaiser, director at Traverse Fund. “Over the past 11 years, Mercato has found, funded and collaborated with high-growth companies to build long-term value and enable successful exits, serving our entrepreneurs, our investors and our communities,” he said.
“We offer our sincere congratulations to George Mulhern and the entire team for successfully nurturing a vision of wireless interconnectivity in the Intermountain West,” said Kaiser. “Building a world-class technology company in the shadows of the Sawtooth Mountain Range in Idaho is a tribute to their determination and reinforces our belief at Traverse that innovation is not limited by location. We look forward to their integration with the global telecom power, Ericsson.”
Founded in 2006, Cradlepoint is a pioneer in LTE and 5G cellular network technology.
Ericsson is one of the largest providers of telecom technology to service providers. From its founding in 1876 in Sweden, Ericsson has grown to 100,000 employees worldwide and an intellectual property portfolio of over 54,000 patents.