Cisco Systems agreed to acquire privately held Sheer Networks, a developer of intelligent network and service management products for service providers and large enterprises, approximately $97 million in cash and assumed options for Sheer Networks. In addition, the acquisition price may be increased by as much as $25 million depending on the degree to which certain development and product milestones are met after close.
Sheer's network virtualization technology can adapt to network changes easily, scale to large networks, and help extend new technologies and services to simplify the difficult task of monitoring and maintaining complex networks. The virtual network model hides the complexity of physical networks in a way that makes them accessible to a variety of management applications. This Dynamic Network Abstraction layer makes them transparent and accessible to a broad range of management applications.
Sheer's flagship product is its "Sheer BOS", which provides continuous auto-discovery across multi-layer, multi-domain, multi-vendor networks and services. This enables capabilities in the areas of inventory reconciliation, service assurance and service configuration for next generation networks.
Cisco said the acquisition would strengthen its ability to provide innovative and effective network management solutions. Cisco's blueprint for network management includes a common services platform on which applications are delivered and the ability to support management applications from Cisco and other vendors.
http://www.cisco.com
http://www.sheernetworks.com
- Sheer Networks was founded in 1999 and has 100 employees in San Jose, Calif. and Petach Tikva, Israel.
- In May 2004, Sheer closed its fourth round of financing led by Star Ventures. Participants in this round included JVP, JK&B, Rein Capital, Morton L. Topfer, Ray Lane, Nokia and 3Com.
