Cisco has completed the acquisition of Acacia Communications, Inc., following approval of the transaction by a majority of Acacia shareholders, according to a statement released by the company.
Acacia designs and manufactures high-speed, optical interconnect technologies and components that allow webscale companies, service providers and data center operators to meet consumer demand for data, according to the statement.
Cisco Completes Acacia Acquisition
Cisco had to increase the purchase price to $4.5 billion from an earlier agreement of $2.6 billion to get the deal done. Under the new agreement, Cisco will pay $115 per share for Acacia, the company said. The companies have been "wrangling over the 2019 deal aimed at giving Cisco a clearer path into spending linked to 5G network rollouts," according to The Street. Regulators in the U.S., Germany and Austria had cleared the proposed takeover, but a lag in obtaining approval from China before a January 8 deadline caused Acacia to terminate the original deal, The Street reported.
After the acquisition, Acacia will no longer be a publicly traded company, according to the statement. Acacia has notified NASDAQ of the completion of the acquisition, and has requested that NASDAQ file a notification of delisting with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Acacia's behalf, according to the statement.
Acacia employees will join Cisco's Optics business as part of the Mass-Scale Infrastructure Group.
Cisco Betting Big on 'Internet for the Future'
The Acacia acquisition, and Cisco’s willingness to negotiate on price, reinforces the importance Cisco is placing on optics as the company builds on its 'Internet for the Future’ strategy.
Cisco said in the statement it is committed to supporting and growing Acacia's existing customers around the world and attracting new customers that require coherent optics, digital signal processing/photonic integrated circuit modules and transceivers for use in networking products and data centers.
"We are thrilled to welcome the Acacia team to Cisco," said Chuck Robbins, Cisco chairman and CEO. "Our Internet for the Future strategy puts Acacia's high-speed coherent optics technologies front and center as we work to empower webscale companies, service providers and data center operators to meet today's fast-growing demands for data."
