Cisco Systems officials are looking to significantly upgrade the tech vendor’s capabilities in the Internet of things with the planned $1.4 billion acquisition of Jasper Technologies, a private company that has built an IoT platform that makes it easier for enterprises to connect their products through the cloud.
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Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay $1.4 billion in cash and assumed equity awards, plus additional retention based incentives.
Jasper connects devices to the Internet through 27 service-provider groups around the world and runs a SaaS (software as a service) platform for managing the connectivity of those devices.
The Wall Street Journal reported in November 2014 that Jasper was working on an initial public offering for the following year. In Jasper, it would add one of the most prominent companies specializing in IoT.
Cisco claims that Jasper is the industry’s leading IoT service platform in terms of number of enterprises and service providers.
Jasper Technologies, a privately held company based in Santa Clara, offers cloud-based IoT service platform to assist enterprises and telecom service providers to launch, manage and monetize IoT services.
“Cisco views Jasper as a unique IoT service platform that is disrupting a massive market with strong strategic alignment with Cisco”.
Cisco, which makes computer networking equipment, says it plans to add new Internet of Things services including enterprise Wi-Fi, security for connected devices, and advanced analytics to better manage device usage.
“IoT has become a business imperative across the globe”. The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of fiscal year 2016, subject to customary closing conditions.
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Jasper CEO Jahangir Mohammed will head a new Cisco business unit focused on IoT software, and will report to senior vice president Rowan Trollope.
