San Jose (Calif. –US) November 21, 2012 –Networking leader plans to acquire an Indian-co-founded Us-based company and innovator in cloud –based networking : Meraki Inc. Meraki was founded in 2006 by members of MIT’s Laboratory for Computer Science – PhD students Sanjit Biswas and John Bicket, who helped with the institute’s famous RoofNet project. Today, Meraki offers a complete cloud managed product family including easy-to-deploy on-premise networking solutions, wireless LAN, Ethernet switches, security appliances, and mobile device management.
The acquisition of Meraki complements and expands Cisco’s strategy to offer more software-centric solutions to simplify network management, help customers empower mobile workforces, and generate new revenue opportunities for partners. The Meraki acquisition will also strengthen Cisco’s Unified Access platform, which makes IT more responsive to business innovation by simplifying IT operations and uniting wired and wireless networks, policy and management into one integrated network infrastructure, unlike other competitive offerings, says a Cisco release.
Says Rob Soderbery, senior vice president, Cisco Enterprise Networking Group: “Meraki’s solution was built from the ground up optimized for cloud, with tremendous scale, and is already in use by thousands of customers to manage hundreds of thousands of devices.” Meraki combines a high-velocity software development methodology with a tightly linked inside sales and channel model that will form the new Cloud Networking Group.
Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $1.2 billion in cash and retention-based incentives to acquire the entire business and operations of Meraki. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of Cisco’s fiscal year 2013.

Sanjit Biswas, who was Meraki’s CEO, is responsible for Meraki’s strategic direction and day-to-day operations. He is currently on leave from the Ph.D. program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he co-led the research project that won several academic awards and later became the foundation of Meraki’s wireless mesh technology. Sanjit holds a B.S. in Computer Systems Engineering from Stanford, and an S.M. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.
Meraki (may-rah-kee) is a Greek word that means doing something with passion and soul. www.meraki.com  www.cisco.com