Cisco Intends to Acquire Acacia Communications 

Cisco and Acacia Communications announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Cisco has agreed to acquire Acacia. An existing Cisco supplier, Acacia designs and manufactures high-speed, optical interconnect technologies that allow webscale companies, service providers, and data center operators to meet the fast-growing consumer demands for data.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco has agreed to acquire Acacia for $70.00 per share in cash, or for approximately $2.6 billion on a fully diluted basis, net of cash and marketable securities. As Cisco and Acacia come together, Cisco plans to support Acacia's existing customers and new customers that want industry-leading coherent optics, digital signal processing / photonic integrated circuit modules, and transceivers for use in networking products and data centers.

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

Cisco offers a full portfolio of optical systems to support webscale, service provider, enterprise, and public sector customer segments. These optical systems address performance, power, and cost requirements. Acacia's technology will enrich Cisco's optical systems portfolio. It will also allow the growing number of customers transitioning from chassis-based systems to pluggable technology to simplify operations and reduce network complexities.

The acquisition is expected to close during the second half of Cisco's FY2020, subject to customary closing conditions and required regulatory approvals. Upon completion of this transaction, Acacia employees will join Cisco's Optical Systems and Optics business within the networking and security business under David Goeckeler.

For additional information about Cisco's intent to acquire Acacia, please read the blog from the head of Cisco's Optical Systems and Optics business, Bill Gartner.