SAN JOSE, Calif., November 17, 2004 - Cisco Systems, Inc., today announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Jahi Networks, Inc. of San Jose, Calif. Jahi is a provider of network management appliances designed to simplify device deployment, configuration and management. Jahi's technology includes an external Programmatic Interface (PI) and other interface enhancements which complement Cisco's existing CLI and PI strategy and will enable Cisco to provide an enhanced network management solution to customers.
Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $16 million in cash and assumed options. The acquisition of Jahi is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to close in the second quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2005.
"A major challenge in providing network management applications is the lack of consistent means of communicating with the variety of devices that comprise an end-to-end network -- a programmatic interface can provide an automated means of interaction with network devices. Jahi's technology will help Cisco build a practical and unique solution for management of existing and new devices," said Cliff Meltzer, senior vice president for Cisco's Network Management Technology Group.
Jahi's technology provides the foundation for a consistent external network device interface and simplifies network deployment and management by creating a virtual device view of the network, thus reducing the complexity and cutting the overall cost. This solution will augment Cisco's existing network management applications by providing an enhanced interface for Cisco devices. It will also offer customers who are writing their own scripts and network management applications a common way of interacting with different Cisco devices running in the network.
Upon close of the acquisition, the Jahi team will become a part of the Network Management Technology Group headed by Cliff Meltzer, senior vice president. Jahi was founded in 2003 and has 20 employees in San Jose, Calif. and Hyderabad, India.
