Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Acacia Communications (NASDAQ: ACIA) today announced an amendment to the definitive merger agreement under which Cisco previously agreed to acquire Acacia.
Under the terms of the amended agreement, Cisco would acquire Acacia for $115 per share in cash, or for approximately $4.5 billion on a fully diluted basis, net of cash and marketable securities. Cisco and Acacia expect to complete the acquisition by the end of the first calendar quarter of 2021, subject to closing conditions, including Acacia stockholder approval.
As widely reported, the two companies earlier this month went through a round of legal maneuvering allegedly concerning the degree of Acacia's valuation and status with Chinese authorities since the merger was first announced two years ago.
Upon completion of the acquisition, Acacia's CEO Raj Shanmugaraj and the company's employees will join Cisco's Optics business.
"I am delighted that Cisco and Acacia have decided to come together in this mutual deal," said Chuck Robbins, chairman and CEO, Cisco. "We look forward to welcoming Raj and the Acacia team to Cisco to offer our customers world-class coherent optical solutions to power the Internet for the future."
The pending acquisition of Acacia reinforces Cisco's commitment to optics as a critical building block that will enhance the company's 'Internet for the Future' strategy, it says, "with world-class coherent optical solutions for customers, further enabling them to address the unprecedented scale of modern IT."
Cisco said in its announcement that it is committed to supporting Acacia's existing and new customers around the world that require coherent optics, digital signal processing / photonic integrated circuit modules and transceivers for use in networking products and data centers.
"Both Cisco and Acacia have been focused on helping customers create a simpler operations environment, with a shared vision for the future of routing and switching with pluggable optics," said Bill Gartner, senior vice president and general manager, Cisco Optical Systems and Optics Group. "Together we will ignite our strategy to transform the optical world as we know it, with innovative solutions to boost network capacity inside and outside the data center."
"We maintain our strong conviction in the strategic benefits of joining the Cisco family and believe it will enable us to better support our existing customers, while reaching an expanded footprint of new customers globally," concluded Raj Shanmugaraj, president and CEO of Acacia. "We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Cisco and are excited to move forward with the combination which we believe will transform the optical industry, while providing great opportunities for Acacia employees to continue their innovation."
