An erupting volcano in Iceland didn’t stop Cisco Systems from announcing it has completed its final bid for Tandberg, a company it first attempted to acquire in 2009. Cisco paid $3.4 billion for the telepresence company, both companies announced Monday.
Through its voluntary acquisition of Tandberg, San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco will build up its existing telepresence business, which provides videoconferencing collaboration to businesses.
“This has been five years’ worth of marketing, and now we have crossed the chasm to scale,” said Marthin De Beer, Cisco’s senior vice president of products.
Because Iceland’s volcanic eruption halted many flights out of the U.S., De Beer could not fly to Europe to join Tandberg CEO Fredrik Halvorsen to announce the deal. Instead, using Cisco TelePresence technology, the executives announced what the deal means for its partners, customers and the videoconferencing market.
Tandberg’s full product line will be integrated into Cisco TelePresence, according to the companies.
Interoperability will become more significant as people work across different platforms, according to Cisco. And the plan is to provide Cisco TelePresence services in the cloud, both on premises and through hosted options.
One of the first noticeable changes will be with personnel. Halvorsen will move from his role as CEO of Tandberg to senior vice president and leader of the new Cisco TelePresence Technology Group.
Next on the agenda will be to integrate the two companies’ technologies, which will begin in 12 to 18 months, Halvorsen said.
A major marketing transition is also under way. Cisco, which has been familiar as a routing and switching products provider, plans to evolve those areas of its business.
“We are going to take what we have today in video technology and go into new markets, including sports, entertainment, education and health care,” De Beer said.