Proxim Wireless Corp

Company Profile

Proxim Wireless Corporation is a San Jose, California-based company that builds scalable broadband wireless networking systems for communities, enterprises, governments, and service providers. It offers wireless LAN, point-to-multipoint and point-to-point products through a channel network. The company is a product of many mergers and acquisitions over the years. Proxim Corporation was founded in 1984, initially headquartered in Mountain View, California. Starting in 1989, it began to develop radio frequency modules using spread spectrum technology. Its first commercial product in 1990 used 900 MHz frequency bands. End-user products called RangeLAN were introduced in 1991 and 1992, reflecting their use as network interface controllers for local area networks . The first adapter using the Industry Standard Architecture bus and supported Novell NetWare. An initial public offering on December 15, 1993 listed the company shares on NASDAQ under symbol PROX. In 1994 the RangLAN2 products starting using 2.4 GHz bands, and in 1995 the RangeLINK product line was introduced. Proxim was a founding member of the Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum in May 1996 to help interoperability between its RangeLAN2 and other wireless technologies. A secondary offering expected to raise an estimated $95 million in June 1996 was delayed and reduced to about $41 million by late July 1996. A product line called Symphony was introduced in 1998.