Cisco Buys Its Way Deeper Into IoT

There was some significant M&A in the vendor space yesterday, as Cisco appears to be mounting a serious attack on the budding Internet of Things opportunity. They have announced a deal to acquire Jasper Technologies for $1.4B.

Jasper's specialty is the software that the internet of things will be based on. They offer software that enables devices to communicate wirelessly and thus join the internet, and also software that monitors those devices from the cloud. They have several thousand customers worldwide spanning a wide range of devices, and supposedly had been looking at an IPO over the last year or two.

Cisco will be looking to retain Jasper's talent, paying for 'retention-based incentives' in addition to the $1.4B price tag. Along with Jasper's 385 employees, the company's CEO Jahangir Mohammed will stay on to run what will be Cisco's IoT Software Business unit.

Just how Cisco leverages Jasper's technology and integrates it with the rest of its technologies will be interesting to watch. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2016.