Cisco buys Acacia Communications for $2.6bn to tap into its optical interconnect technology

Cisco has revealed that it plans to acquire Acacia Communications as part of a $2.6bn deal, in a bid to enhance its optical systems portfolio. 

Acacia designs and manufactures high-speed optical interconnect technologies that are used by web scale companies, service providers and data centre operators alike to meet the demands for data. 

"By innovating across software, silicon and optics, Cisco is reinventing every domain of the network with our intent-based architectures," said David Goeckeler, executive vice president and general manager of Cisco's networking and security business.

 "With the explosion of bandwidth in the multi-cloud era, optical interconnect technologies are becoming increasingly strategic. The acquisition of Acacia will allow us to build on the strength of our switching, routing and optical networking portfolio to address our customers' most demanding requirements."

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The deal is expected to close during the second half of Cisco’s 2020 financial year.

Following the deal, Acacia’s employees will join Cisco’s Optical Systems and Optics business. 

Raj Shanmugaraj, president and chief executive officer of Acacia, said that “Cisco and Acacia will continue to serve and support existing Acacia customers."

He added: “By integrating Acacia technology into Cisco's networking portfolio, we believe we can accelerate the trend toward coherent technology and pluggable solutions while accommodating a larger footprint of customers worldwide."