Cisco Systems Inc. is trying to expand its portfolio of optical, silicon, and software technologies to bolster its intent-based networking by announcing its plans to acquire Massachusetts-based Acacia Communications.
“By innovating across software, silicon, and optics, Cisco is reinventing every domain of the network with our intent-based architectures,” said David Goeckeler, executive vice-president and general manager of Cisco’s networking and security business. “With the explosion of bandwidth in the multi-cloud era, optical interconnect technologies are becoming increasingly strategic. The acquisition of Acacia will allow us to build on the strength of our switching, routing and optical networking portfolio to address our customers’ most demanding requirements.”
Acacia was already an existing supplier for Cisco, and Cisco said it plans to continue to service existing and new Acacia customers.
“Coherent technology has been a game-changer for optical networking and continues to evolve with the deployment of pluggable coherent optics,” said Raj Shanmugaraj, president and chief executive officer, Acacia. “Upon close, Cisco and Acacia will continue to serve and support existing Acacia customers. By integrating Acaciatechnology into Cisco’s networking portfolio, we believe we can accelerate the trend toward coherent technology and pluggable solutions while accommodating a larger footprint of customers worldwide.”
The sale will be for $70 USD per share, totaling approximately $2.6 billion USD.