Cisco tidies up some deals
Networking gear maker puts final touches on three takeovers and expands its presence in the Middle East.
On Monday, the networking gear giant announced that it has expanded its presence in the Middle East with a strategic alliance and an investment in Estarta Solutions, an international IT consulting company based in Amman, Jordan. The deal's financial details were not disclosed.
Estarta said it plans to use the investment to create a Cisco Technical Support Center in Jordan, which will be used to drive Cisco's technical engineering support services for enterprise customers in Europe and the Middle East. Estarta has a similar relationship with software giant Microsoft.
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In addition, Cisco officially closed the books last week on three acquisitions: Actona Technologies, Parc Technologies and Procket Networks.
The company said in June that it would spend $89 million in cash to buy router maker Procket Networks. The takeover caused quite a stir, since Procket's hardware competed directly with a newly announced router that its new owner had spent four years and $500 million developing. Cisco said at the time that it was buying Procket primarily for its engineering team.
Cisco also announced the $82 million purchase of software storage company Actona Technologies in June. Actona's products are designed to provide workers in enterprise branch offices with high-speed access to centrally installed and managed global file systems.
News of Cisco's $9 million acquisition of Parc Technologies was released in early July. The London-based software maker provides algorithms that help solve routing problems in order to improve network utilization and reduce expenses.
Cisco, based in San Jose, Calif., plans to report earnings for the quarter ended July 31 on Tuesday.