Cisco announced the intent to buy semiconductor company Luxtera for $660 million in cash and assumed equity awards. Following the acquisition, Cisco will be integrating Luxtera’s technology across its intent-based networking portfolio, spanning enterprise, data center, and service provider markets.
The acquisition is expected to close in Cisco’s third quarter of the fiscal year 2019, subject to closing conditions and regulatory approvals. And Luxtera employees are going to be joining Cisco’s Optics business under Cisco EVP and general manager of the Networking and Security Business group David Goeckeler. Some of the other major acquisitions that Cisco made earlier this year include Ensoft and Duo Security.
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Luxtera uses silicon photonics to build integrated optics capabilities for enterprise data centers, service provider market segments, and other customers. And Luxtera’s technology and manufacturing innovation substantially improve chip scale and performance while driving lower costs.
“With Cisco’s 2018 Visual Networking Index projecting that global Internet traffic will increase threefold over the next five years, our customers are facing an exponential demand for Internet bandwidth,” said David Goeckeler. “Optics is a fundamental technology to enable this future. Coupled with our silicon and optics innovation, Luxtera will allow our customers to build the biggest, fastest and most efficient networks in the world.”
Cisco is expecting this acquisition to future-proof networks for emerging applications and expand Cisco’s 100GbE and 400GbE portfolio. As the emerging class of distributed cloud, mobility, and IoT applications is creating a strain on existing communications, the combination of Cisco’s and Luxtera’s capabilities in 100GbE/400GbE optics, silicon, and process technology will help customers build future-proof networks optimized for cost, performance, and reliability.
“As system port capacity increases from 100GbE to 400GbE and beyond, optics plays an increasingly important role in addressing network infrastructure constraints, particularly density and power requirements,” added Cisco’s VP for Corporate Business Development Rob Salvagno. “The combination of Cisco’s and Luxtera’s capabilities in 100GbE/400GbE optics, silicon and process technology will enable customers to build future-proof networks optimized for performance, reliability and cost.”
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