San Jose, US, October 26 — Cisco announces an agreement to acquire BroadSoft for $1.71b. BroadSoft specializes in software used by major cable and telecommunication networks.
What does this exactly mean for the users? Well, for one, it means that Cisco’s services will expand and new features might be offered soon.
What does BroadSoft do?
Based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, US, Broadsoft is a technology innovator in the field of unified communication for businesses and large service providers, such as Verizon and AT&T, to whom they have sold their products so they can offer unified communications over their internet protocol networks.
Their flagship product, BroadWorks, is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) application platform that enables service providers to deliver voice services for enterprise and residential end-users. BroadSoft deploys an extensive portfolio of business communications and collaboration services through a modular software platform architecture, on which Broadworks is based. It includes mobile network integration, security features, business support, and other aspects of providing such services.
As Rob Salvagno explained Reuters, BroadSoft’s products, which are delivered over the cloud or the Internet, will improve Cisco’s collaboration portfolio, mostly because Cisco’s products, such as WebEx, are based on-premise. Once the acquisition takes place, though, both Cisco and BroadSoft will provide a comprehensive SaaS portfolio of cloud-based unified communication, collaboration and contact center software solutions and services for all kinds of customers.
Leadership insight
“Together, Cisco and BroadSoft will deliver a robust suite of collaboration capabilities across every market segment,” said Rowan Trollope, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Applications Business Group. “We believe that our combined offers, from Cisco’s collaboration technology for enterprises to BroadSoft’s suite for small and medium businesses delivered through Service Providers will give customers more choice and flexibility.”
“We are excited about this transaction, which represents the culmination of a robust process undertaken by BroadSoft’s Board of Directors to maximize shareholder value,” said Michael Tessler, president, and CEO, BroadSoft. “As businesses continue to move toward the cloud in search of simplicity and speed, joining Cisco will allow us to deliver best-in-class collaboration tools and services.
BroadSoft’s hosted offerings, sold through the Service Providers and aimed at small and medium businesses, are highly complementary to Cisco’s on-premises and enterprise-centric HCS offerings. Together, we can inspire teams to create, collaborate and perform in ways never before imagined.”
Fulfilment plan
Although the official announcement was made on October 23, the deal is expected to be officially closed during the first quarter of 2018. For now, take it as the fact that the purchase is made and that BroadSoft’s products will soon be produced for and by Cisco too.
Summary
This is Cisco’s 200th acquisition of all time and their seventh this year, just after the $3.7b purchase of AppDynamics, another cloud-based technology provider, thus turning Cisco into a dangerous competitor for those partners who invested heavily in hosted voice services.
It’s now likely that the BroadSoft products will either be killed off or will be migrated into an existing Cisco product, With BroadSoft in the team, Cisco has improved their standing in the unified communications market even further.
YouTube: BroadSoft UC-One
Photo credit: Ecole Polytechnique Université Paris-Saclay
Source: Liana B. Baker, Munsif Vengattil (Reuters) / Cisco press release
Editorial notice: The quotes were provided as part of a public press release.
