Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire Cloupia

Acquisition Extends Cisco’s Data Center Portfolio with Software that Enables Management of Converged Infrastructure Solutions

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Nov. 15, 2012 – With cloud computing driving the transition to converged infrastructure, the need for simplified management systems across compute, storage, network and virtualization functions is increasing. To help address this need, Cisco today announced its intent to acquire privately held Cloupia, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based software company that automates converged data center infrastructure – allowing enterprises and service providers to simplify the deployment and configuration of physical and virtual resources from a single management console.

Cloupia’s infrastructure management software enhances the Cisco Unified Computing System® (UCS) and Nexus® switching portfolio with a single “pane-of-glass” view into the automation of compute, network, storage, virtual machine, and operating system resources. When combined with leading data center management solutions like Cisco UCS Manager, Cloupia allows enterprises and service providers to seamlessly manage pools of computing power, network services, storage and virtual machines as a unified whole in order to deploy and deliver IT services more rapidly and at lower costs.

“Cisco’s data center strategy is based on the premise of making it easier for customers to deploy a unified and integrated infrastructure that is efficient, fast, and flexible,” said David Yen, senior vice president and general manager, Cisco Data Center Business Group. “This strategy involves the delivery of the industry’s most comprehensive data center networking portfolio, which includes physical and virtual products that support multiple hypervisors and storage stacks. The addition of Cloupia’s automation software enhances the efficiency of such unified data center infrastructures, helping to accelerate the transition from physical to cloud environments more quickly and effectively.”

Mergers, acquisitions and investments are a key part of Cisco’s build, buy, and partner innovation framework and support our strategy of providing best-in-class solutions for customers. The Cloupia acquisition aligns to Cisco’s strategic goals to develop innovative data center, virtualization and cloud technologies, while also cultivating top talent.

Upon the close of the acquisition, Cloupia employees will be integrated into Cisco’s Data Center Group.  Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $125 million in cash and retention-based incentives in exchange for all shares of Cloupia. The acquisition is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to be complete in the second quarter of Cisco’s fiscal year 2013.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

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Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco’s trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.

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

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