Cisco and Acacia Communications amend merger agreement for $4.5bn
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Cisco and Acacia Communications amend merger agreement for $4.5bn

Chuck Robbins - Cisco.jpg

Cisco and Acacia Communications have announced an amendment to the definitive merger agreement under which Cisco will acquire Acacia

Announced back in July 2019, the two entered into an agreement for $2.6 billion as Acacia Communications attempts to strengthen its switching, routing and optical networking portfolio.

"Both Cisco and Acacia have been focused on helping customers create a simpler operations environment, with a shared vision for the future of routing and switching with pluggable optics," said Bill Gartner, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Optical Systems and Optics Group.

"Together we will ignite our strategy to transform the optical world as we know it, with innovative solutions to boost network capacity inside and outside the data centre."

Under the terms of the amended agreement, Cisco would acquire Acacia for $115 per share which equates to approximately $4.5 billion on a fully diluted basis, net of cash and marketable securities.

The deal is due to complete by the end of Q1 of 2021, subject to closing conditions, including Acacia stockholder approval. Once completed, CEO Raj Shanmugaraj and Acacia employees will join Cisco's optics business.

"I am delighted that Cisco and Acacia have decided to come together in this mutual deal," said Chuck Robbins (pictured), chairman and CEO, Cisco.

"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."

Cisco will continue to support Acacia's existing and new customers that require 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," added Raj Shanmugaraj, president and CEO of Acacia.

"We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Cisco and are excited to move forward with the combination which we believe will transform the optical industry, while providing great opportunities for Acacia employees to continue their innovation." 

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