Cisco Acquires Sheer Hosting
Cisco Systems (cisco.com) said on Tuesday that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Sheer Networks, a developer of network and service management products for service providers and large enterprises. Cisco will also pay $97 million in cash with the price going up by up to $25 if certain milestones are met after the deal closes.
The company also says the addition of Sheer’s technology will enable it to simplify the task of monitoring and maintaining networks. Cisco says it will develop and sell device, network and service-level management applications, enabling management across multi-vendor networks and network-based services. Cisco will also enable other vendors to develop applications that can easily interoperate with Cisco web hosting applications through standards-based APIs.
“We are continuously investing in our business to meet our customers’ needs, and the Sheer Networks acquisition will strengthen our ability to provide innovative and effective network management solutions,” says Cliff Meltzer, senior vice president for Cisco’s Network Management Technology Group. “Our blueprint for Cisco network management includes a common services platform on which applications are delivered and the ability to support management applications from Cisco and other vendors. Sheer has a similar philosophy and parallel architecture which will accelerate our delivery of Cisco’s next generation management platform and advanced applications to our Service Provider customers.”
The deal, subject to customary cheap hosting regulator conditions, is expected to close in the first quarter of Cisco’s 2006 fiscal year.