Everybody loves an underdog, right? Think Rocky Balboa. The wireless market has its own underdog: Proxim, which sells equipment to set up
local area networks and wide area networks. Proxim is in a hot market
right now, and that's the good news. The bad news is that there are
other companies in the same market, and one of them is named Cisco
(CSCO). Last week Proxim reported its financials for the first
quarter, and so far this year, the underdog has been, well,
underwhelming.

Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., Proxim is not a new company -- the 550-
employee business was founded in 1979 -- but it has a new look,
thanks to some recent deals. Last March, Proxim merged with fellow
wireless infrastructure provider Western Multiplex, and in June it
paid $65 million in cash to acquire Agere Systems's 802.11 wireless
local area networking (WLAN) equipment business, including the
popular Orinoco product line of access points and PC cards.