SAN JOSE, Calif. – June 20, 2013 – Cisco today announced its intent to acquire privately held Composite Software, Inc., a market leader in data virtualization software and services. Headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., Composite provides software technology that connects many types of data from across the network and makes it appear as if it's in one place. Composite's software integrates traditional and new data sources including cloud and big data, into a simplified consolidated view. This simplified and optimized logical view of data enables organizations to make better, more informed decisions in real time.
Composite will expand Cisco's portfolio of Smart Services and extend our next-generation services platform by connecting data and infrastructure. Through this connection, companies will be able to better leverage network knowledge (APIs) and programmability, which maximizes the benefits of data virtualization. As with the transition from physical servers to server virtualization and from physical networks to network virtualization, together Cisco and Composite will accelerate the shift from physical data integration to data virtualization for customers and partners.
"Cisco's strategy is to create a next generation IT model that provides highly differentiated solutions to help solve our customers' most challenging business problems," said Gary Moore, Cisco president and chief operating officer. "By combining our network expertise with the performance of Cisco's Unified Computing System and Composite's software, we will provide customers with instant access to data analysis for greater business intelligence."
This acquisition builds on Cisco's framework for a unified platform and our software services strategy with the recent acquisition of SolveDirect. Composite's data virtualization solution combined with SolveDirect's process integration platform will provide cross-domain data and workflow integration capabilities to enable real time business insights and operations.
Upon completion of the acquisition, Composite employees will join the Cisco services team, under the leadership of Mala Anand, senior vice president, Cisco Services Platforms Group and Mike Flannagan, senior director and general manager of the Integration Brokerage Technology Group. Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $180 million in cash and retention-based incentives in exchange for all shares of Composite. The acquisition of Composite is expected to close in the first quarter of fiscal year 2014, subject to customary closing conditions.
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Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may be deemed to contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including the expected completion of the acquisition and the time frame in which this will occur, the expected benefits to Cisco and its customers from completing the acquisition, and plans regarding Composite personnel. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results due to a variety of factors, including, among other things, the potential impact on the business of Composite due to the uncertainty about the acquisition, the retention of employees of Composite and the ability of Cisco to successfully integrate Composite and to achieve expected benefits, business and economic conditions and growth trends in the networking industry, customer markets and various geographic regions, global economic conditions and uncertainties in the geopolitical environment and other risk factors set forth in Cisco's most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. Any forward-looking statements in this release are based on limited information currently available to Cisco, which is subject to change, and Cisco will not necessarily update the information.
