Last year Cisco made a big push to enter the Software as a Service (SaaS) market with the acquisition of WebEx for $3.2 billion dollars. Some analysts questioned the acquisition and others simply could not comprehend the premium Cisco paid to acquire WebEx.
Thus far, the acquisition has been a blessing for both companies and as it stands WebEx has put Cisco into a better position in terms of the Unified Communications front. "While we've done over 130 acquisitions, WebEx has a very realistic possibility of being in the top five, maybe even in the top two, in terms of long-term contribution to Cisco," said John Chambers, Cisco CEO. "WebEx has the capabilities to expand well beyond just enabling collaboration, to providing many things as a service to the environment, to embedding them deep into our products and to be a key differentiator for many our of customer and partners as well."
To date, Cisco has reduced its travel cost by 41% along with its Carbon Emissions footprint. WebEx usage has been so tremendous across Cisco that approximately 555 business days are literally being compressed into a single business day each and every day!
Other top Cisco acquisition contenders:
- Linksys
- Scientific Atlanta
Future acquisitions target??? Companies that are Web 2.0-based or deeply rooted in social networking could be an interesting play. Perhaps someone like Akamai for their web content optimization solutions. (I'm a personal share holder in Akamai (AKAM).
Dear David,
From the above article I am getting a feeling that Cisco had acquired WebEx from the perspective of saving their travelling cost which stands at first place. Thus putting promotion of SAAS in second place but not of low priority. Are there any major advantages to Cisco other than mentioned here?
Regards,
Amit
Posted by: Amit Ingale | September 17, 2008 at 02:01 AM