Proxim jumps after Motorola investment

Shares of Proxim Inc. (Nasdaq: PROX) hit at 52-week high of 44 7/8 on Thursday after Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) invested $10 million in the company as part of a partnership with the wireless local area network technology company. Proxim rose 2 15/16 to 44 7/16 in late-morning trade.

Proxim makes wireless local area networking products based on radio frequency technology. Motorola sells products for wireless communications and broadband Internet access over cable. The deal is hoped to speed the deployment of wireless broadband Internet access for the home-and small office markets.

Motorola, the second-largest mobile phone maker behind Nokia Oyj (NYSE: NOK), also received an undisclosed number of warrants to purchase additional Proxim shares in the future.

Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), the world's largest chipmaker, has also been making inroads into the home networking market with recent investments, such as its purchase of communications chipmaker Level One Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: LEVL) as well as Dialogic Corp. (Nasdaq: DLGC), which was announced on Tuesday.

In April, Intel put $10 million into Proxim as part of an agreement, but the terms of that agreement weren't disclosed.

Motorola, Proxim and Intel are members of the HomeRF Working Group, which also includes Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ), Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HWP), IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT).