The 4G wireless technology space is heating up, so expect vultures.

Acacia Research Corporation, a massive patent holding group with dozens of subsidiaries in the business of exploiting intellectual property by means of lawsuits and aggressive patent licensing schemes, this morning announced that it has acquired ADAPTIX, a 4G wireless technology company that originally started out in 2000 under the name Broadstorm and was owned by PE firm Baker Capital.

Acacia Research is paying $160 million for the company, which has $10 million in cash, primarily to obtain ADAPTIX’ portfolio of 230 issued and pending patents in 13 countries.

The patents in question are said to cover a broad range of 4G technologies, including OFDMA and MIMO.

Guess what’s going to happen next.

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IT infrastructure solutions provider Internap this morning announced its acquisition of privately-held Voxel, an enterprise hosting and cloud services company based in NYC, for $30 million in cash. Under the terms of the deal, an additional $5 million in cash could be put on the table over the next two years, subject to certain performance-based criteria.

Founded in 1999 in founder Raj Dutt’s dorm room, the company provides on-demand dedicated hosting and cloud services to enterprises and Web-centric businesses.

Voxel says it currently serves more than 1,000 customers and has approximately 50 employees.

The company was backed by NYC-based private equity firm Seaport Capital.

By adding Voxel’s service locations in Amsterdam and Singapore to Internap’s existing service locations, the combined company aims to offer colocation, managed hosting, dedicated hosting and cloud services to customers around the world. Internap says it will also leverage Voxel’s automation technologies and expertise to enhance existing products.

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Mindspeed Technologies, a provider of semiconductor solutions for network infrastructure applications, this morning announced that it has acquired UK-based Picochip, a supplier of integrated system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for small cell base stations.

Mindspeed is paying $51.8 million for Picochip, a mix of cash and stock, and up to $25 million in earn-out payments in the first calendar quarter of 2013.

Here’s how the company pitches the move to shareholders and the press:

Together, Mindspeed and Picochip will offer the most comprehensive portfolio of base station semiconductor solutions on the market, from residential to enterprise to pico/metro applications.

Through this timely combination, Mindspeed’s enhanced product roadmap for single- and multi-mode 3G/4G solutions will enable it to capitalize on the rapid acceleration of the small cell wireless base station market, while also addressing comprehensive support for all 3G and 4G global air interface standards.

Mindspeed says it will cough up $27.5 million in cash, financed in part with bank debt, plus roughly 5.19 million in shares (approximately 15 percent of outstanding Mindspeed shares) for a total of $24.3 million. The transaction is expected to close in the first calendar quarter of 2012.

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Akamai has indeed acquired Cotendo, one of its largest competitors, in a deal valuing the CDN and site acceleration services company at approximately $268 million.

The confirmation comes nearly a month after Israeli business press reported that Akamai was mulling an acquisition of the website and mobile acceleration technology vendor for up to $350 million.

Under the terms of the agreement, Akamai will acquire all of the outstanding equity of Cotendo in exchange for a net cash payment of $268 million, after accounting for expected purchase price adjustments, plus the assumption of outstanding unvested options to purchase Cotendo common stock. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2012.

Says Paul Sagan, president and CEO of Akamai:

“As we look to accelerate growth across the dynamic landscapes of cloud and mobile optimization, we are excited to be joining forces with Cotendo.

Cotendo’s technology, partnerships and people are a strong complement to Akamai. Together, we believe there is tremendous opportunity for our combined technologies as enterprises embrace the move to the cloud and seek solutions for an increasingly mobile world.”

Founded in 2008, Cotendo is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and employs roughly 100 people (of which half work out of its R&D facilities near Netanya, in Israel).

Cotendo has raised over $36 million in funding from investors like Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital and Tenaya Capital.

The company specializes in acceleration services for dynamic Web apps, static and dynamic web content, performance monitoring and automatic failover as well as real-time reporting and analytics.

A few months ago, Cotendo raised $17 million in new funding from its previous backers, with Citrix Systems and Juniper Networks stepping in as strategic investors as well. Other strategic partners include Google, AT&T and Sumitomo Corporation.

Cotendo customers include Zynga, Vistaprint and Facebook. Notably, the company’s advisory board includes Jonathan Heiliger, currently VP of Technical Operations at Facebook.

On an interesting sidenote: a year ago, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology joined Akamai in suing Cotendo over patent infringement (which in turn reminds me of Nuance’s recent acquisition of Vlingo, which also occurred after – years of – patent litigation between the two parties).

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ADTRAN this morning announced that it is to acquire Nokia Siemens Networks’ fixed line Broadband Access business, all associated services and network management solutions, intellectual properties, technologies and the established customer base. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The news comes right after Nokia Siemens Networks announced that it would be laying off 17,000 people worldwide before the end of 2013. At the time, the company outlined plans to focus on mobile broadband and services, and that it would be actively divesting, selling or putting in maintenance mode business units that it considers non-core to this new ‘strategy’.

Roughly 400 people will transfer to ADTRAN globally as a result of the transaction, including engineering, R&D and sales staff.

The deal also includes provisions which would allow ADTRAN solutions to be incorporated by Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) into its offerings.

The planned transaction is expected to close by the end of April 2012. ADTRAN says it expects the acquired business to be neutral to diluted earnings per share for the first 12 months and accretive after the first full year.

Also read: DragonWave Buys Part Of Nokia Siemens Networks, Gains 360 Employees

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Two acquisitions today that were for the most part executed so Silicon Valley companies could buy their way into the UK (and Ireland) market.

Freshly funded location-based mobile gaming company Red Robot Labs has acquired UK-based indie gaming company Supermono Studios.

Cloud solutions company Appirio, which just raised funding from Salesforce.com and other strategic backers, has acquired Saaspoint, a provider of cloud consulting services.

Read more at TechCrunch Europe.

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Blue Coat, which specializes in Web security and WAN optimization solutions, has agreed to be acquired by an investor group led by San Francisco-based PE firm Thoma Bravo in a transaction valued at roughly $1.3 billion.

Shareholders stand to receive $25.81 per share per common stock, in cash, and Blue Coat’s board of directors has already approved the agreement. The price represents a premium of almost 50 percent over the company’s closing price on December 8, 2011.

Blue Coat’s solutions protect enterprises from Web-based security threats and for accelerating and optimizing applications and rich media content, such as video, over their networks.

The investor group that is acquiring the company is led by Thoma Bravo and includes the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan through its private investor department, Teachers’ Private Capital.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, and Blue Coat expects the transaction to close in the first calendar quarter of 2012.

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Tekelec, a publicly-listed mobile broadband solutions provider, is to be acquired by an investor group in a transaction valued at approximately $780m (or $11 per share) in cash. The investor consortium making the buy is led by PE firm Siris Capital Group and includes affiliates of The ComVest Group, funds and accounts managed by GSO Capital Partners Sankaty Advisors ZelnickMedia and other Siris LPs and affiliates.

According to a press statement, the investor group has already secured the funding needed to complete the transaction, consisting of a combination of equity and debt financing.

The deal is expected to close during the first quarter of 2012, pending shareholder approval, regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

Tekelec’s management team is expected to remain in place, and Merle Gilmore, former President of Motorola’s Communications Enterprise, will serve as Tekelec’s Executive Chairman following the closing of the deal.

In related news, Tekelec reported third-quarter earnings today: revenue for the quarter was $106.2 million, down 2 percent year-over-year. On a non-GAAP basis, the company reported net income for Q3 2011 of $13.1 million.

To learn more about Tekelec, watch the video below:

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Oracle this morning announced that it has acquired RightNow – both companies are listed on NASDAQ – for $43 per share or roughly $1.5 billion net of RightNow’s cash and debt. With the acquisition, Oracle is adding a robust cloud-based customer service offering (see graph below) to its own Public Cloud solution – more info on that here. RightNow’s share price closed at $35.96 last week, so the deal represents a premium of roughly 20 percent on its closing price on Friday the 21st of October.

RightNow’s solutions help companies handle customer interactions across a multitude of channels, including call and contact centers, the Web and social networks.

Its products are used by nearly 2,000 organizations across the globe, the company says.

Founded in 1997, RightNow went public in 2004. The company boasted a market cap of $1.2 billion at market close last week.

The acquisition by Oracle is expected to close later this year or in early 2012. As usual, the transaction is subject to a number of things, including RightNow stockholder approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Oracle has closed 6 acquisitions this year. While its takeovers of RightNow and Endeca are pending, the company has completed the purchases of Datanomic, FatWire, Inquira, select intellectual property assets of Ndevr, Ksplice and Pillar Data Systems in 2011 alone.

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DragonWave this morning announced plans to acquire Nokia Siemens Networks’ microwave transport business, including its associated operational support systems and related support functions.

The move turns DragonWave into a strategic supplier of packet microwave and related products to Nokia Siemens Networks, and the companies state they will “jointly coordinate technology development activities”.

DragonWave and NSN hope the deal will allow for the birth of the next generation of backhaul products, supporting microwave solutions for mobile operators all across the globe.

The consideration paid by DragonWave on closing will include approximately 10 million euros in cash and 5 million euros worth of DragonWave common shares, although earn-out payments could raise the value of the transaction by approximately 80 million euros down the line.

DragonWave expects to finance the transaction through a combination of cash on its balance sheet and increased debt facilities.

As part of the acquisition, the companies expect approximately 360 Nokia Siemens Networks employees, mainly based in Milan (Italy) and Shanghai (China) to transfer to DragonWave.

The acquisition is expected to close in Q1 2012.

Nokia and Siemens have been trying to sell their joint venture, which was originally formed in 2007, for some time now, but it looks like it’s having a tough time convincing anyone to swallow it whole. Perhaps the new strategy is to sell it in chunks.

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