Cisco to Acquire CoreOptics

By Anshu Shrivastava, TMCnet Contributor

Cisco has announced its intent to acquire privately held CoreOptics, a designer of digital signal processing (DSP) solutions for high-speed optical networking applications.

As per the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $99 million in cash and retention-based incentives in exchange for all shares of CoreOptics (News - Alert).

With the acquisition of San Jose based CoreOptics, Cisco expects to equip its service provider customers with advanced 100 Gigabits per second (Gbps) transmission technology to scale their networks to meet the demands of growing Internet Protocol traffic driven by video, mobility and cloud services.

Company officials said that by enabling high speeds across an existing infrastructure, Cisco (News - Alert) and CoreOptics will address the challenge facing service providers of accommodating the growth in network traffic.

This acquisition will enable the company to reinforce its commitment to continue to invest in its core networking business and to deliver IP next-generation networks at 100 Gbps and beyond, said Surya Panditi, vice president and general manager for Service Provider Access and Transport Technology Group at Cisco.

Additionally, the acquisition of CoreOptics expands Cisco's optical presence in Europe, builds on its existing European operations in Monza, Italy. Company officials believe that it'll contribute to continued innovation in optical networking.

Moreover, CoreOptics is expected to bring to Cisco a team with strong expertise in digital ASIC design, advanced modulation formats, and also optical systems, applications and network architecture.

After the acquisition is completed, the employees of CoreOptics are expected to become part of the Cisco Service Provider Technology Group and work with Cisco's existing optical engineering teams in Monza, Italy; Bangalore, India; and Richardson (News - Alert), Texas.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the second half of calendar year 2010.

"We are focused on continuing to deliver an industry-leading portfolio of routing, switching and optical transport systems that enable our service provider customers to better address the ever-present business challenge of managing tight capital and operating budgets while accommodating the tremendous growth in network traffic," Panditi said.

Earlier this month, Cisco announced Cisco Secure Borderless Network architecture by introducing enhancements to its cloud security platform. The company introduced e-mail and Web security services that, when combined with Cisco's threat intelligence resources and strategic investments, deliver enhanced cloud security for enterprise users.

(source: http://communication-solutions.tmcnet.com/topics/optical-access/articles/86063-cisco-acquire-coreoptics.htm)