SAN JOSE, Calif., March 29, 2000 - Cisco Systems, Inc., today announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held SightPath, Inc. of Waltham, Massachusetts. SightPath is a leading provider of appliances for creating intelligent Content Delivery Networks (CDN's). This acquisition will enable Cisco to offer its customers a comprehensive content delivery solution that meets the needs of today's content-rich web applications. SightPath's products, coupled with Cisco's Internet infrastructure, will make it easier for Cisco customers to offer New World applications and services such as e-learning, live streaming media, and high reliability hosting.
Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco common stock with an aggregate value of approximately $800 million will be exchanged for all outstanding shares and options of SightPath. This acquisition will be accounted for as a pooling of interests and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2000. The acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is subject to various closing conditions.
Cisco is acquiring SightPath to give its customers the ability to create CDNs using existing Internet and Intranet infrastructure. Using open Internet Protocol-based networks, content delivery networks enable enterprise customers to deploy data-intensive applications such as real-time video and on-line training quickly and efficiently to employees throughout an organization. SightPath's products will also enable service providers to offer high-performance content delivery services to their customers.
SightPath's appliances continually collect data on web traffic, congestion and server load in order to route a user's request to the most optimal server. SightPath's appliances also distribute content closer to the edge of the network. These capabilities ensure that web content and other content-rich applications are delivered to the user in the most intelligent and efficient way possible.
SightPath was founded in 1998. The 76 employees will be led by SightPath CEO Jim Ricotta and will join Cisco's Content Services Business Unit in the Enterprise Line of Business led by Senior Vice President James Richardson.
