Cisco Networking Systems has acquisitioned cloud networking firm Meraki for $1.2 Billion. Meraki is one of the leaders in cloud controlled WiFi, routing, and security. Meraki is a San Francisco-based company, founded in 2006 and was funded by Sequoia Capital and Google. Meraki today supports 20,000 customers and hundreds of thousands of network devices on its platform.
Cisco in a blog post stated
“When compared to other opportunities, Meraki built a unique cloud-based business from the ground up that addresses the broader networking shift towards cloud, not just within wireless. Meraki created a massively scalable architecture that offers easy to deploy, secure, and manage networks”
Meraki will form Cisco’s new Cloud Networking group, led by Meraki CEO Sanjit Biswas. The company said on its website it had originally planned to remain independent and go public, but joining Cisco will help it achieve its goal of hitting $1 billion in revenue a year.
Cisco, based in San Jose, Calif., expects the acquisition to close in its second fiscal quarter ending in January. The $1.2 billion purchase price includes cash and retention-based incentives. This purchases comes right on the heels of the $125 million purchase last week of Cloupia, which develops software that helps data center operators manage their resources.
From the way things look Cisco is defiantly beefing up there cloud division with great software and great knowable staff as they compete with companies like Oracle and Rackspace.