Stoke Scores Second DoCoMo Deal

Stoke Inc. has picked up a second contract with NTT DoCoMo Inc. (NYSE: DCM), Unstrung has learned.

The new deal is "a lot bigger than the first one," CEO Vikash Varma says. While that's not terribly specific, he notes that Stoke will now get "tens of millions" of dollars from DoCoMo during the next 18 to 24 months.

The first DoCoMo deal, described as being worth millions, was announced in June. Shipments for that deal have begun and will result in a revenue spike for Stoke this year, Varma says.

Both deals hinged on Net One Systems Co. Ltd. , Stoke's reseller and systems integrator in Japan. Net One invested in Stoke in April, and the initial deal with DoCoMo was announced two months later. (See Stoke Secures $15M Funding and DoCoMo Picks Stoke.)

Stoke has a similar distribution contract -- and customer -- signed up in Europe, Varma says, but he won't give out details yet.

Varma says these deals -- and another signed with KT Corp. -- make it obvious why Stoke was considered a possible takeover target for Juniper Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: JNPR). (See Stoke Touts APAC Traction and Juniper's Wireless Worry.) "There are only so many tens-of-millions deals to be decided," he says. "I'm not going to confirm or deny anything, but we are in discussions with several companies."

If Juniper is one of them, then Stoke would be battling against an internal mobile-core project, one built off the newly announced MX 3D router architecture. (See Juniper Looks Inward for Wireless and Juniper Takes Over the Network.)

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading