Cisco plunged into the M&A pool again Tuesday by splashing out $415 million to acquire privately held Whiptail, a maker of solid state memory systems designed to help companies simplify data center and “virtualized” environments and more rapidly process data.
Cisco said the acquisition of the Whippany, N.J.-based company will strengthen its Unified Computing System strategy by integrating scalable solid state memory into the UCS’ computing fabric, and help it stay on top of emerging apps, such as virtual desktops and data analytics, that are imposing more demands on traditional storage array systems. More specifically, Cisco said the integration will enable it to stitch data acceleration capabilities into the compute layer.
"We are focused on providing a converged infrastructure including compute, network and high performance solid state that will help address our customers' requirements for next-generation computing environments," said Paul Perez, vice president and general manager, Cisco Computing Systems Product Group, in a statement. "As we continue to innovate our unified platform, Whiptail will help realize our vision of scalable persistent memory which is integrated into the server, available as a fabric resource and managed as a globally shared pool."
Cisco said it Whiptail and its employees will join the Perez-led Computing Systems Product Group, anticipating that the deal will be closed during Cisco’s fiscal first quarter. Evercore served as financial advisor to Whiptail, according to an Evercore spokesperson.
Cisco’s latest acquisition comes as the company prepares to cut about 5% of its workforce because it’s not satisfied with the pace at which the economy is recovering.
