Monday September 25, 8:30 am Eastern Time
Cisco seeks further Israel acquisitions
TEL AVIV, Sept 25 (Reuters) - U.S. networking giant Cisco Systems Inc is interested in making further acquisitions in Israel, chairman John Morgridge said on Monday.
``We have acquired five companies in Israel and set up a research centre,'' Morgridge said at a news conference. ``You can be assured we will make further acquisitions here because of the start-up culture. We have an acquisition development programme here.''
Morgridge is visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories this week to launch the Cisco Networking Academy Program, which trains network specialists in more than 5,200 academies in 84 countries.
Joseph Gal, Cisco's Near East regional manager, said the company has invested about $400 million in Israel, both in its subsidiary and in acquisitions.
``We will reach $500 million in investments very soon,'' Gal said, without elaborating.
Last week Cisco completed the acquisition of Israel's Hynex Ltd for $129 million.
Gal said Cisco is particularly interested in buying companies operating in the areas of wireless infrastructure, optical bandwidth and IP billing.
Gal denied Cisco was interested in acquiring London-traded BATM Advanced Communications (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BVC.L), as had been rumoured less than a year ago. BATM makes switches to help speed up Internet connections.
``There is no basis'' to the rumours, Gal said. |
