Acquisitions

SAN JOSE, Calif. – On March 1, 2021 Cisco announced it has successfully completed the acquisition of Acacia Communications, Inc., a Massachusetts-based company and existing Cisco supplier. Acacia designs, manufactures, and sells a complete portfolio of high-speed optical interconnect technologies addressing a range of applications across datacenter, metro, regional, long-haul, and undersea networks.

Cisco’s ‘Internet for the Future’ strategy is focused on software, silicon, and optics as critical building blocks for introducing disruptive innovations across multiple domains. As internet traffic and speeds continue to increase, optics has a critical role in driving architectural transitions. Cisco’s acquisition of Acacia reinforces our commitment to optics as one of those critical building blocks that will enhance Cisco’s 'Internet for the Future' strategy with world class coherent optical solutions for our customers. Cisco with Acacia is poised like no other in the industry to offer our customers with solutions in the form they want to consume – whether that means discrete components or fully integrated solutions – for the new internet.

With the explosion of bandwidth in the multi-cloud era, optical interconnect technology is becoming an increasingly strategic part of the network. Coherent technology has been a game-changer for optical networking and continues to evolve with the deployment of pluggable coherent optics. Acacia is a leader in coherent optics, helping customers simplify operations and reduce network complexity by transitioning from chassis-based systems to pluggable technology. We believe our customers will benefit from this acquisition as Cisco integrates Acacia’s coherent optics technology into our Internet for the Future strategy and Optical Components business. Cisco is firmly committed to Acacia’s existing customers and new customers that want industry leading coherent optics, modules, and transceivers for use in networking products and datacenters.

Software, silicon and optics are foundational technologies for Cisco’s Internet for the Future strategy. We continue to invest across foundational silicon, optics and software technologies as port speeds increase from 100G to 400G and beyond. Cisco offers a full portfolio of optical systems to support webscale, service provider, enterprise, and public sector customer segments. Our investment spans in-house innovation, strategic acquisitions, investments, and partnerships.

Q: Can you explain Acacia’s offering?
A:  Acacia develops, manufactures and sells high-speed coherent optical interconnect products that are designed to transform communications networks through improvements in performance, capacity and cost. By implementing optical interconnect technology in a silicon-based platform, a process Acacia refers to as the "siliconization of optical interconnect," Acacia is able to offer products at higher speeds and density with lower power consumption, that are designed to meet the needs of webscale companies and service providers and are designed to be easily integrated in a cost-effective manner with existing network equipment.

Q: Why did Cisco choose Acacia?
A: Cisco uses Acacia technology in its optical systems and routing portfolio today, and as more of the coherent market is fulfilled with pluggable technology (e.g. 400G ZR), this fits well with our overall optics strategy. Cisco has a rich portfolio of optics (pluggables) supporting our routing and switching portfolio, and we expect that customers will adopt pluggable DWDM technology over time as this technology evolves in both performance and density.

Q: What is the strategic importance of the Acacia acquisition to Cisco’s strategy?
A: Cisco’s ‘Internet for the Future’ strategy is focused on software, silicon, and optics as critical building blocks for introducing disruptive innovations across multiple domains. Cisco’s acquisition of Acacia reinforces our commitment to optics as one of the critical building blocks that will enhance Cisco’s ‘Internet for the Future’ strategy with world class coherent optical solutions for our customers. We address the full range of optical transmission customer needs, from very short reach (500m, 2km, 10km) to WAN, Metro and Long Haul. Acacia is used in our optical systems today to address our customers’ needs in the WAN, Metro and Long Haul market segments. As this technology migrates from modules that are incorporated onto line cards in optical systems and pluggables, Cisco will be in a position to serve our customers as they make this architectural shift.

Cisco is dedicated to our customers’ and partners’ success by maintaining business continuity with existing products. We are committed to creating value for our customers through deeper integration of Cisco and Acacia technologies, driving new revenue streams and delivering competitive differentiation.

If you are existing customer of Acacia with questions about Acacia products or services, please contact your Acacia representative. If you are a Cisco customer with questions about Cisco products or services, please continue to contact your existing sales representative. 

Acacia customers should continue to use the existing process for support on Acacia products. Cisco will notify you in advance of any change to the support process.

Cisco customers should continue to use the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) for technical support on Cisco products. For more information about opening a technical support case and for regional TAC telephone numbers, refer to Cisco Worldwide Support Contacts.