SAN JOSE, Calif. – March 19, 2012 – Cisco today announced the completion of the acquisition of privately held Lightwire, Inc. Headquartered in Allentown, Penn., Lightwire develops advanced optical interconnect technology for high-speed networking applications.  The acquisition will allow Cisco to deliver cost-effective, high-speed networks with the next generation of optical connectivity, allowing service provider and data center customers to meet the growing demands of video, data, voice, mobility and cloud services.

Upon the close of the acquisition, Lightwire employees will be integrated into Cisco's Transceiver Modules Group Business Unit and Supply Chain Operations Group.  Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco paid approximately $271 million in cash and retention-based incentives in exchange for all shares of Lightwire. 

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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 Lightwire 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 Lightwire due to the uncertainty about the acquisition, the retention of employees of Lightwire and the ability of Cisco to successfully integrate Lightwire 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.