Cisco reaches deal to acquire Acacia for USD 4.5 billion

SAN FRANCISCO: Networking giant Cisco has agreed to acquire Acacia for USD 115 per share in cash, or approximately USD 4.5 billion. Acacia is a component supplier and maker of high-speed optical interconnect technology for networking systems.

Cisco initially offered to acquire Acacia for USD 70 a share, or USD 2.6 billion in July 2019. "I am delighted that Cisco and Acacia have decided to come together in this mutual deal," said Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins. "We look forward to welcoming Raj and the Acacia team to Cisco to offer our customers world-class coherent optical solutions to power the Internet for the future," Robbins said in a statement on Thursday.

Upon completion of the acquisition, Acacia CEO Raj Shanmugaraj and its employees will join Cisco's optics business. Cisco and Acacia expect to complete the acquisition by the end of the first calendar quarter of 2021.

Last week, Acacia announced to terminate its merger agreement with Cisco after the company had failed to meet a set of closing conditions such as "obtaining necessary regulatory approvals within the timeframe contemplated by the merger agreement."

Cisco said it is committed to supporting Acacia's existing and new customers around the world that require industry-leading coherent optics, digital signal processing/photonic integrated circuit modules and transceivers for use in networking products and data centres.

"We maintain our strong conviction in the strategic benefits of joining the Cisco family and believe it will enable us to better support our existing customers, while reaching an expanded footprint of new customers globally," said Raj Shanmugaraj, president and CEO of Acacia.

Cisco said the acquisition will benefit its existing enterprise network portfolio.