Thanksgiving may be around the corner, but Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings) was too hungry to wait, and yesterday announced its intention to buy Meraki. The purchase, which will cost them $1.2B in cash and incentives, is yet another inorganic part of Cisco’s cloud strategy. Last week they also made a purchase, buying Cloupia for $125M.
Meraki’s software enables mid-market enterprise customers the ability to control parts of their corporate network from the cloud. Their current portfolio includes cloud-based management of Wi-Fi configuration, switching, security, and mobile device management. Meraki will become Cisco’s new ‘Cloud Networking’ group, which will be led by its CEO Sanjit Biswas.
In essence, Cisco is using its nearly $50B cash horde to buy its way into this market rather than build the products from scratch, adding both a successful product portfolio and the talent behind it. That means there shouldn’t be too much in the way of displacement for employees, although that doesn’t mean there will be none. The deal is expected to close in Cisco’s fiscal second quarter, which I believe means by the end of January 2013.
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Categories: Cloud Computing · Mergers and Acquisitions · Telecom Equipment
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