Cisco Pulls a Houdini on Navini ...

... but they won't actually disappear until the second quarter of Cisco's 2008 fiscal year.

By the way, weren't we just talking about WiMax yesterday?

Yep, Cisco's at it again, as they today announce a definitive agreement to purchase Richardson, TX-based Navini Networks, Inc. a leader in the Mobile WiMAX 802.16e-2005 broadband wireless industry (source: CNNMoney.com).

Seeing how Navini's practically in my own backyard, I'm digging what this is going to do for this industry:

The acquisition of Navini will help extend and enhance Cisco's IP Next Generation Network (IP NGN) vision to enable service providers to deliver any service to any device over any network -- a vision that Cisco calls the Connected Life. The addition of broadband wireless products based upon WiMAX will complement existing Cisco products and solutions to enable service providers to deliver premium end-to-end Connected Experiences and hasten their transition to becoming Experience Providers (CNNMoney.com).

The acquisition will set Cisco back about $330 million in cash and assumed options, and will be acquisition number 124.