Cisco announces intent to acquire Luxtera

Cisco is intending to acquire privately-held Luxtera, Inc, a semiconductor company based in Carlsbad, California. It uses silicon photonics to build integrated optics capabilities for webscale and enterprise data centers, service provider market segments, and other customers. Luxtera’s technology, design, and manufacturing innovation significantly improve chip scale and performance, while lowering costs. Cisco plans to incorporate Luxtera’s technology across its intent-based networking portfolio, spanning enterprise, data center and service provider markets. Cisco will pay USD 660 million in cash and assumed equity awards for the acquisition of Luxtera. The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of Cisco’s fiscal year 2019, subject to customary closing conditions and required regulatory approvals.

The acquisition will future-proof networks for emerging applications. The combination of Cisco’s and Luxtera’s capabilities in 100GbE/400GbE optics, silicon, and process technology will enable customers to build future-proof networks optimized for performance, reliability, and cost. Integration of Luxtera and Cisco’s optical transceiver portfolio will broaden Cisco’s offering of 100GbE and 400GbE optics. As system port capacity increases from 100GbE to 400GbE and beyond, optics role in addressing network infrastructure constraints, particularly density and power requirements will increase.