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Cisco Pays US$3.2 Billion For WebEx |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Friday, 16 March 2007 |
After already eating a lot of social networking technology this year,
you would have to be a little surprised CIsco feels it has room to
digest the world's leading web conferencing outfit - WebEx. But that's
just what the network goliath plans to do announcing a definitiive
agreement to acquire the company for approximately US$3.2 Billion.
Cisco says the planned acquisition will be tucked under its belt and
used to roll-out Unified Communications Services to Small and Medium
sized businesses. WebEx is a market leader in on-demand collaboration
systems such as Web Conferencing and has 2.2 million registered users.
The applications are used for both internal and external
collaborations across the Internet, supported by WebEx's MediaTone Network, a global network specifically designed for the
secure delivery of on-demand applications. WebEx applications support
multipoint videoconferencing, web conferencing and application remote
control.
WebEx was founded in 1995 and pulled of a dot-com float in July 2000.
The company has close to 2200 employees and revenues of around US$380
million. These revenues come from a subscription-based services
strategy and says it Cisco plans to preserve this business
model going forward.
"As collaboration in the workplace becomes increasingly important,
companies are looking for rich communications tools to help them work
more effectively and efficiently," said Charles H. Giancarlo, Chief
Development Officer at Cisco. "The combination of Cisco and WebEx will
deliver compelling solutions accelerating this next wave of business
communications.
"Cisco believes the network is a platform for all forms of
communications and collaboration, and WebEx's technology and services
portfolio complement Cisco's leadership in the Unified Communications
and collaboration market, while providing Cisco with a new and unique
business model to expand its presence in the fast-growing SMB market,"
Giancarlo continued.
"Cisco and WebEx share a vision of web collaboration as a key to
accelerating business processes and critical to durable competitive
advantage," said Subrah S. Iyar, CEO of WebEx. "Cisco's global reach
and customer focus will help us extend our core web collaboration
applications and continue to broaden the services we offer through the
WebEx Connect platform."
The agreement includes a cash tender
offer to purchase all of the outstanding shares of WebEx for US$57 per
share and assume outstanding share-based awards. The acquisition is expected to close in the
fourth quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2007.
www.WebEx.com
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