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Technology
Cisco Heads for the Cloud with Meraki Acquisition
Cisco Systems is shelling out $1.2 billion to acquire San Francisco-based Meraki.
The deal will allow the San Jose networking giant to expand its cloud-based computing services. Meraki's technology enables businesses to manage mobile devices, wi-fi networks and security from the cloud.
Analyst Crawford Del Prete is chief research officer with IDC. He said Cisco is paying a premium to get into what may soon be a multi-billion dollar market.
“Cisco is buying into the future to allow them to really get more exposure and a greater footprint in network cloud computing,” Del Prete said.
Cisco is facing increasing pressure from competitors like Hewlett-Packard and Juniper Networks. Del Prete says the deal will help Cisco broaden its customer base to small and midsized businesses.
