Cisco Acquiring Cloupia to Extend Data Center Portfolio

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is at it again, with yet one more acquisition. The company is acquiring Cloupia, a software company that automates converged data center infrastructure. Cisco will pay approximately $125 million in cash and retention-based incentives in exchange for all shares of Cloupia.

Cloupia is based in Santa Clara, Calif., and its solutions allow enterprises and service providers "to simplify the deployment and configuration of physical and virtual resources from a single management console." Its infrastructure management software is said to enhance Cisco's Unified Computing System and Nexus switching portfolio with a single "pane-of-glass" view into the automation of compute, network, storage, virtual machine and operating system resources.

Today's acquisition of Cloupia aligns to Cisco's strategic goals to develop innovative data center, virtualization and cloud technologies, while also cultivating top talent. The company said that Cloupia employees will be integrated into Cisco's Data Center Group. The acquisition is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2013.

This is too small to make a difference in the near-term to Cisco's bottom line, but it is yet one more move into the data center. If there is one thing you can say about Cisco's M&A machine, it is that counting the number of acquisitions from Cisco is about as difficult as counting the number of kills from Conan the Barbarian. To prove that, here is the endless list of Cisco acquisitions.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Mergers & Acquisitions, Technology, Technology Companies Tagged: CSCO