By Telecom Lead Team: Cisco is set to acquire Lightwire which develops
advanced optical interconnect technology for high-speed networking
applications.
Lightwire employees will be integrated into Cisco’s
Transceiver Modules Group Business Unit and Supply Chain Operations Group.
Cisco will pay approximately $271 million in cash
and retention-based incentives in exchange for all shares of Lightwire.
The acquisition is expected to be complete in the third
quarter of Cisco’s fiscal year 2012.
The acquisition will allow Cisco to deliver
cost-effective, high-speed networks with the next generation of optical
connectivity, allowing service provider and data center customers to meet the
growing demands of video, data, voice, mobility and cloud services.
Lightwire has expertise in CMOS photonics, which is
expected to play a significant role in the enablement of high-speed networks.
“The acquisition of Lightwire will support our data
center and service provider customers as they manage the continuing deluge of
network traffic alongside tight capital and operating budgets,” said Surya
Panditi, senior vice president, Cisco Service Provider Networking
Group.
Lightwire’s CMOS-based technology offers lower power
consumption and scalability that enable switches, routers and optical transport
systems to have higher-density optical connectivity at a lower cost, allowing
carriers to further reduce their operational and capital costs and offer new
revenue-generating services.
“The Lightwire acquisition builds on Cisco’s
existing optical networking expertise and complements Cisco’s 2010
acquisition of CoreOptics, a designer of coherent digital signal-processing
solutions and application-specific integrated circuits for high-speed optical
networking applications,” said Ned Hooper, Cisco’s chief strategy
officer.
Recently, Cisco posted
11 percent increase in sales in Q2 ending January 28, 2012 at $11.52 billion
compared with $10.40 billion in the corresponding period previous
year. Net profit during Q2 was $2.18 billion as compared with $1.52
billion.
