Mergers and Acquisitions, Enterprise, Content

Cisco Systems: We’re Still Acquiring Acacia Communications

Cisco Systems is still on track to acquire Acacia Communications, the technology companies say, though the $2.6 billion deal faces an ongoing regulatory review in China.

Cisco and Acacia announced the $2.6 billion deal in July 2019. Acacia designs and manufactures high-speed, optical interconnect technologies for webscale companies, service providers, and data center operators.

Fast forward to July 2020. The State Administration for Market Regulation of the People's Republic of China (SAMR) continues to review the pending deal. In a statement today, Cisco and Acacia said they "remain actively engaged with SAMR and expect the acquisition to receive regulatory clearance."

Cisco, Acacia: Executive Perspectives

In a prepared statement, Bill Gartner, Cisco senior vice president and general manager for the Optical Systems and Optics Group, said:

"We are looking forward to Acacia joining Cisco and are excited to partner with their world class team to build on the great success in their core markets,. We are fully committed to and strongly believe in the merits of this pending acquisition. Together, we will support and strengthen their existing customer base around the world, and look forward to further expansion, underpinned by Acacia's current portfolio and future product roadmaps."

Added Raj Shanmugaraj, president and CEO of Acacia Communications:

"We'd like to thank our customers for their support of the transaction. We are excited about the acquisition, including the growth opportunities it affords our customers and are looking forward to closing."

The deal has already received regulatory clearance in the United StatesGermany and Austria.

US-China Tensions

It's unclear if or how tensions between the United States and China influence the way China is reviewing the Cisco-Acacia deal. The United States and some European countries have taken a stand against China's Huawei -- a networking company that competes against Cisco.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.