Cisco Goes on a Spending Spree, Acquires Cloud Networking Firm for $1.2 Billion
Cisco, which recently cracked a list of 25 top companies to work for, is committed to spending big money beefing up its cloud infrastructure. The latest indication of that is today's announcement that the company will fork over approximately $1.2 billion in cash and retention-based incentives to acquire Meraki, a privately held player in cloud controlled Wi-Fi, routing, and security solutions located in San Francisco, California.
"The acquisition of Meraki enables Cisco to make simple, secure, cloud managed networks available to our global customer base of mid-sized businesses and enterprises. These companies have the same IT needs as larger organizations, but without the resources to integrate complex IT solutions," said Rob Soderbery, senior vice president, Cisco Enterprise Networking Group. "Meraki’s solution was built from the ground up optimized for cloud, with tremendous scale, and is already in use by thousands of customers to manage hundreds of thousands of devices."
Cisco said it was important for the company to extend its reach to cloud networking and device and security services as the IT industry transforms in the mobile-cloud era.
In addition to acquiring Meraki for $1.2 billion, Cisco on Friday announced its intent to spend an additional $125 million for Cloupia, a privately held company in Santa Clara, California, that automates converged data center infrastructures.
"The acquisition of Meraki enables Cisco to make simple, secure, cloud managed networks available to our global customer base of mid-sized businesses and enterprises. These companies have the same IT needs as larger organizations, but without the resources to integrate complex IT solutions," said Rob Soderbery, senior vice president, Cisco Enterprise Networking Group. "Meraki’s solution was built from the ground up optimized for cloud, with tremendous scale, and is already in use by thousands of customers to manage hundreds of thousands of devices."
Cisco said it was important for the company to extend its reach to cloud networking and device and security services as the IT industry transforms in the mobile-cloud era.
In addition to acquiring Meraki for $1.2 billion, Cisco on Friday announced its intent to spend an additional $125 million for Cloupia, a privately held company in Santa Clara, California, that automates converged data center infrastructures.
