If yesterday we talked about the M&A process from Microsoft, today we take another look at Microsoft's mergers and acquisitions of another technology giant, Cisco Systems. Technological progress is so great in the sector that many companies are already tying up future purchases. In this post we will talk about Cisco's intention to buy Ensoft and some of the other moves made by the multinational in the last few days.
Cisco to buy Ensoft
On 21 November, the official launch of the intention to Cisco to buy the company English Ensoft. With this future acquisition they aim to simplify service provider networks through automation and scheduling capabilities. The purchase agreement is scheduled to close in the second quarter of 2019.
Cisco is shifting away from hardware-based revenue and is focusing its efforts on software and subscription revenues.. Buying a company that is full of software engineers working on service provider solutions seems to be a good move for the tech giant.
Innovation in unified transport and service layers with Segment Routing (SR) and Ethernet Virtual Private Networks (EVPN) is accelerating the evolution of large-scale IP infrastructure. "Cisco's network software strategy is focused on enabling a simplified, scalable, reliable and automatable IP network infrastructure," said Rob Salvagno, head of the company's M&A and venture investment team.
In its most recent earnings report, Cisco's vendor orders increased by 2% year-over-year. In addition, the company posted revenue of $13.1 billion, which was higher than expected.
Ensoft, a leading software company
Based in Harpenden, England, Ensoft is a privately held company that provides software solutions for service provider networks. Its unique culture has positioned it as the leading software company of the Sunday Times "100 Best Small Companies to Work For" in 2018.
The UK company has around 70 engineers specialising in networking software. They will join Cisco's service provider networking group, led by Senior Vice President and General Manager Sumeet Arora.
Ensoft is developing IOS XR, the carrier-class distributed software that powers Cisco's highest-end multi-terabit routers and will continue to support networking software.
More purchases by Cisco Systems
Let's briefly see some other mergers and acquisitions that Cisco has made this year in technology companies.
The first and most recent was the purchase of Duo Security for a staggering $2.4 billion. The company, founded in 2009 and headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, provides security software products and services.
The next acquisition to be mentioned is that of July Systemsa cloud-based mobile location and experience services platform. The goal of Cisco's purchase is to understand its customers' preferences and bring that information into the real world.
Finally, we talked about Accompany. This Californian company describes itself as "the world's most comprehensive database for high-level decision making". We can confirm that they are right, as Cisco made the decision to acquire the company for $270 million in the middle of the year.