Cisco Systems to Acquire FineGround
Cisco Systems® announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held
FineGround Networks, Inc. of Campbell, Calif. With its patented technology,
FineGround is a leading provider of network appliances that accelerate, secure,
and monitor application delivery while minimizing bandwidth usage and maximizing
infrastructure capacity in the data center. By integrating FineGround's
technology with Cisco's products, Cisco will provide customers with advanced
application-acceleration across networks for secure and optimized delivery of
web-based applications.
Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $70 million in
cash and options for FineGround.
The acquisition is subject to various standard
closing conditions, including applicable regulatory approvals, and is expected
to close in the fourth quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2005 ending July 30, 2005.
"This acquisition further enhances Cisco's strategy to converge application
acceleration, security and a highly available network infrastructure seamlessly
in the data center," said Jayshree Ullal, Senior Vice President and General
Manager of Cisco's Security Technology Group. "FineGround augments Cisco's
leadership in content and security products enabling customers to accelerate
application response time and minimize costs."
FineGround's unique technology uses innovative application-optimization
techniques resulting in bandwidth efficiencies, decreased latency, and server
offload across the network. In real-world deployments, customers dramatically
improve end-user response times by up to 5 times, reduce application bandwidth
usage by up to 90 percent, and reduce the load on servers by up to 90 percent.
In addition, FineGround solutions allow organizations to secure and mitigate the
risk of web-enabled business transactions by incorporating application firewall functions.
FineGround will become part of Cisco's Security Technology Group and CEO Nat
Kausik will continue to lead the team. FineGround's products will be sold
through Cisco sales and channels, and its technology will be integrated with
Cisco's ongoing development in this area. FineGround was founded in June 2000
and has 42 employees.
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