Cisco Boosts Acacia Bid To $4.5B

After seeing opposition to its proposed $2.6 billion takeover of the optical communications equipment maker Acacia Communications on Acacia’s end, Cisco…

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins

After seeing opposition to its proposed $2.6 billion takeover of the optical communications equipment maker Acacia Communications on Acacia’s end, Cisco has lifted its bid for the company to $4.5 billion, a 64% rise from the previous price. 

With its sweetened offer, Cisco says it’s struck a deal to buy Acacia after earlier opposition from the company.

Cisco first struck a deal to buy Acacia for $2.6 billion in July 2019 and hoped to close its acquisition in the second half of its fiscal year 2020. Regulatory requirements then prolonged the deal up into this year January when Acacia moved to terminate the acquisition agreement.

Acacia moved to terminate the agreement on the grounds that Cisco didn’t get approval for the deal from Chinese regulators in the timeframe that it was stipulated to do so. Cisco then balked at the company’s move and said it’ll pursue a legal case against the termination.

Now, it looks like more money settled the deal rather than a legal case, with Cisco topping up its Acacia takeover offer by $1.9 billion. Under the new terms, Cisco will pay $115-per-share for the publicly-traded Acacia and see the company join its Optics business division upon the completion of the acquisition.

Cisco now expects to complete its Acacia takeover in the first quarter of 2021.

Photo: Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins by World Economic Forum is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0




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