Cisco to acquire mobile networking firm Intucell for $475M
Cisco announced this morning its plans to acquire Israeli software maker Intucell for around $475 million in cash, as the networking giant seeks to expand its mobile network-management offering.
Cisco said in a statement that the company will enhance Cisco's commitment to global service providers by adding a "crucial network-intelligence layer" that will ultimately manage and increase the quality and efficiency of its mobile users.
Intucell employees will be integrated with Cisco's Service Provider Mobility Group.
The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of Cisco's fiscal year subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval.
Ra'anana, Israel-based Intucell is a privately held firm that provides advanced self-optimizing network software, which helps cellular networks plan, manage, configure, and optimize cell networks automatically, by determining changes to the network in real time.
Senior vice president and general manager for Cisco Service Provider Mobility Group, Kelly Ahuja, said in prepared remarks:
The mobile network of the future must be able to scale intelligently to address growing and often unpredictable traffic patterns, while also enabling carriers to generate incremental revenue streams.
Through the addition of Intucell's industry-leading SON technology, Cisco's service provider mobility portfolio provides operators with unparalleled network intelligence and the unique ability to not only accommodate exploding network traffic, but to profit from it.
One of the more interesting facts here is that Cisco continues to churn through the acquisition spending spree it fell into during 2012.
Late last year, Cisco bought network traffic software firm Cariden Tech for $141 million. The Cariden buy marked the networking giant's third major acquisition in November alone, following the buyout bid for Cloupia for $125 million, and the Meraki acquisition for $1.2 billion. Even farther back, Cisco said it would acquire television software maker NDS for $5 billion. Continuing its acquisition spending plan, earlier this month Cisco invested in virtualization firm Parallels in order to boost its cloud-delivery offering.
Put two and two together, and you can see Cisco is ramping up its networking, network, and cellular management services, and cloud offering altogether. Cisco knows that the cloud is where it's at next--even if it did fall behind on the times slightly, compared to its rivals in the networking space--and continues to push aggressively in that space.