Network
“I dont think were out of the economic situation yet,” Chief Executive Officer Selina Lo said in an interview. Lo was one of the executives who built Alteon WebSystems Inc. and sold it to Nortel Networks Corp. for $7.8 billion in 2000. “If the business is solid, we can wait for the right time.”
Instead of pursuing an IPO, Ruckus will introduce new products that help wireless carriers integrate Wi-Fi with their networks and reduce congestion, said Lo, 50. The five-year-old company will turn an operating profit this year and expand its sales force as it adds the new products, she said. Ruckus expects revenue to reach between $90 million and $100 million this year, from $60 million in 2009.
Ruckus is the latest startup to steer clear of the IPO market this year, with officials from social network Facebook Inc. and real estate site Zillow Inc. making similar declarations. Sequoia Capital and the rest of the venture- capital industry has been waiting for a rebound of IPOs after a two-year slump.
Ruckus, based in Sunnyvale, California, makes antennas and other equipment that stabilize Wi-Fi signals, letting networks more reliably carry data-intensive services such as high- definition TV and other video, Lo said. It also sells gear to set up Wi-Fi hot spots and manage corporate wireless networks.
It gets about 60 percent of sales from telecommunications carriers, including Hong Kong-based PCCW Ltd. and Deutsche Telekom AG, Lo said. The other 40 percent comes from corporate customers, including Marriott International Inc., which uses Ruckus gear to supply Wi-Fi service to hotel guests.
Finding ways to handle mobile-phone data traffic is a top priority for carriers, said Jeff Heynen, an analyst at Infonetics Research, a Campbell, California, consulting firm. Ruckus is one of many companies trying to help get that traffic to either Wi-Fi or wired networks, he said.