Cisco sharpens SDN focus with $683M Insieme purchase

Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) has acquired the remaining stake of Insieme, a so-called spin-in company they created last year for an estimated $683 million as a way to establish a foothold in the emerging software defined networking (SDN) segment.

According to a Reuters report, Cisco completed the purchase of the division but did not provide exact details of the final price, which it said would be tied to its sales targets.

During a recent event in New York, Cisco's CEO and Chairman John Chambers said that Insieme products would "reset the stage for IT for the next decade."

This acquisition reflects the growing interest by large equipment manufacturers to add SDN to their product portfolios.

In addition to Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) and Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR) have been upping their SDN product lines by purchasing other SDN-related companies and creating "spin-in" divisions. Juniper acquired Contrail Systems for $176 million, while Alcatel-Lucent created Nuage Networks. 

Founded by Cisco engineers Prem Jain, Mario Mazzola and Luca Cafiero, Insieme is the third startup vendor that the routing giant developed and folded back into their company. The company currently has 286 employees.

Insieme has developed two key product lines: the Nexus 9000 family of network switches and the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC). Both of these products will be available in the first half of next year.

For more:
- Reuters has this article

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