Cisco to buy chip firm Luxtera for $660 million in cash

Cisco announced that it is set to buy Luxtera, a semiconductor company based in Carlsbad, California, for $660 million in cash.
Cisco for CIOsLuxtera uses silicon photonics technology to build optics capabilities for the purpose of improvement in performance, while lowering costs. Cisco plans to incorporate Luxtera’s technology across its networking products for enterprise, data center and service provider markets.

“Coupled with our silicon and optics innovation, Luxtera will allow our customers to build the biggest, fastest and most efficient networks in the world,” David Goeckeler, executive vice president and general manager, Networking and Security Business at Cisco, said.

More Internet traffic — from people and machines — will be created in 2022 than in the 32 years since the internet started, according to Cisco’s recent VNI Forecast. 60 percent of the population will be internet users by 2022 and more than 28 billion devices and connections will be online.

Cisco believes optics, the main focus area of Luxtera, plays an important role in addressing network infrastructure constraints, particularly density and power requirements.

The combination of Cisco’s and Luxtera’s capabilities in 100GbE/400GbE optics, silicon and process technology will enable customers to build networks optimized for performance, reliability and cost.

Cisco aims to close the acquisition of the privately-held Luxtera, which was founded in 2001, in the third quarter of Cisco’s fiscal year 2019.

Luxtera employees will join Cisco’s Optics business under David Goeckeler, executive vice president and general manager, Networking and Security Business. Greg Young is the president and CEO of Luxtera.

Why Luxtera?

Luxtera website says the company is backed with investment from NEA, August Capital, Sevin Rosen Funds, Lux Capital, and Industry Ventures. The company also has received significant strategic investment and project funding from some of the most corporate players in the networking, computing, and semiconductor industries.

The company has invested over $250 million in silicon phonics R&D. Luxtera has over 197 worldwide patent filing, including 127 issued US patents, covering fundamental aspects of silicon photonics core technologies, system design, integration, and package assembly. Luxtera has one of the industry’s strongest IP portfolios.

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