Sierra Wireless agreed to acquire Wavecom, a French company that makes machine-to-machine wireless technology, for approximately $277 million.
The Canadian wireless modem maker will offer about $10.82 for each Wavecom share it buys, in a bid that tops the hostile one made by Gemalto, another French wireless data company. Gemalto made a bid in early October for $8.88 a share, which was rejected by Wavecom's board. The Sierra deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2009.
The acquisition of Wavecom will expand Sierra's portfolio of M2M products. The move is a large one for Sierra, which decided to pull the plug on a much smaller proposed acquisition of wireless networking firm Cradlepoint in July.
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