Executive Summary

On July 9, 2019, Cisco announced an agreement to acquire optical-networking equipment manufacturer Acacia Communications for $2.6 billion in cash, net of cash and marketable securities.

• Acacia Communications develops, manufactures and sells high-speed optical products that connect servers using silicon-based technology, which aims to offer higher performance and capacity at a lower cost.
• The acquisition enables Cisco to offer its customers greater bandwidth at a cheaper cost and is expected to close in the second half of fiscal 2020 (by July 2020).
• Providing greater, lower-cost bandwidth enables retailers and enterprises to offer bandwidth-heavy services such as virtual reality, real-time image processing and 5G wireless.