SAN JOSE, California – December 18, 2009 – Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced it has completed its acquisition of Starent Networks (NASDAQ: STAR), a leading supplier of Internet Protocol (IP) based mobile infrastructure solutions targeting mobile and converged carriers.

With the Mobile Internet at an inflection point as IP-enabled Smartphones and other connected mobile devices gain rapid acceptance, service providers have been actively investing in this market. Global mobile data traffic is expected to more than double every year through 2013, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index.

Starent Networks' mobile infrastructure solutions play an important role in enabling service providers to scale their mobile infrastructure and monetize their investments via differentiated experiences. They provide the multimedia intelligence, core network functions and services to manage access from any 2.5G, 3G and 4G radio network to a mobile operator's packet core network. Starent Networks' access-independent technology is deployed in CDMA2000 (1X, EV-DO), UMTS/HSPA and WiMAX networks.

With the completion of the transaction, Starent Networks becomes part of Cisco's new Mobile Internet Technology Group within the Service Provider Group (SPG). In addition, Ashraf Dahod, former president and CEO of Starent Networks, becomes senior vice president and general manager of this new group, reporting to Pankaj Patel, senior vice president and general manager of SPG.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco paid $35 per share in cash in exchange for each share of Starent Networks and assumed outstanding equity awards for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $2.9 billion. Cisco expects the acquisition to be dilutive to non-GAAP earnings in fiscal years 2010 and 2011 and accretive to non-GAAP earnings in fiscal year 2012. All shares of Starent Networks are expected to be delisted by the close of business today.