Cisco will acquire London-based company Acano, which provides collaboration infrastructure and conferencing software, at a price tag of $700 million.
Acano's hardware and software includes gateways, and video and audio bridging technology that allows customers to connect video systems from multiple vendors across both cloud and hybrid environments.
According to Cisco, the acquisition will accelerate its collaboration strategy to deliver video everywhere, providing the best collaboration experience across every endpoint, every screen, every workspace, and to every user.
"People, companies and organisations are more geographically dispersed than ever before, and collaboration is essential to helping teams increase productivity and drive growth," says Rob Salvagno, vice president, Cisco Corporate Development.
"Acano's innovations make it easier for customers to collaborate when, where and how they want. Together, we will help our customers to extend collaboration to every room, every screen and every user."
According to the tech giant, less than 10% of the conference rooms in the world are connected via video. However, Cisco says there is a massive market shift underway in collaboration, with customers wanting the ability to easily connect from anywhere, from dedicated hardware endpoints to sharing video on a mobile phone.
Salvagno says Cisco's collaboration business is already seeing the impact of this trend, with 17% year-over-year growth in the first quarter of fiscal year 2016.
"As the momentum continues, there is a need to deliver solutions that will connect any system, regardless of vendor, at a scale that is dramatically higher than ever before," he says.
"Acano's technology and expertise will enable us to accelerate our development in the key areas of interoperability and scalability.
"With Acano, we believe we can accelerate our collaboration momentum and bring new capabilities to market faster," Salvagno says. "Together, Cisco and Acano will be able to capture the expanding market opportunity in collaboration and deliver open and interoperable solutions whether in the cloud or via a hybrid model.
The Acano team will join the Cisco Collaboration Technology Group led by Rowan Trollope, senior vice president and general manager.
Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay $700 million in cash and assumed equity awards, plus additional retention-based incentives for Acano employees who join Cisco.
The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of fiscal year 2016, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory review.
