SAN JOSE, Calif., APRIL 12, 2010 - Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced that the European Commission has approved the appointment of CompetitionRx to oversee commitments made by Cisco to the Commission to promote interoperability in the collaboration market.  This represents the final step in the clearance of the acquisition of TANDBERG from the European Commission.

As part of its commitments, announced on March 29, Cisco agreed to divest ownership of its TelePresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP) and the library of open source software useful to implementers of TIP to an independent industry body, as well as the creation of the monitoring role announced today. Cisco will also provide the industry body with all other rights necessary to implement TIP and authorize the industry body to license those rights to any interested party, royalty-free. Cisco launched a website on April 8 providing TIP licensing information.

With the approval of the appointment of CompetitionRx, Cisco has received all regulatory approvals necessary to complete its acquisition of TANDBERG. The acquisition remains subject to regulatory review in Brazil; however, clearance in Brazil is not a condition to closing. Cisco's offer is now wholly unconditional. Under the terms of the offer, Cisco now has 14 days to close the transaction.