Cisco pays $1.4bn for Internet of Things platform specialist Jasper
3,500 customers can't be wrong, reasons Cisco
Networking giant Cisco has announced the $1.4bn cash acquisition of Jasper Technologies, a company founded in 2004, which provides a cloud-based platform for managing Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
Jasper claims partnerships with some 3,500 companies, including Volkswagen, ABB, General Motors, Hyundai and many mobile telecoms operators, such as EE in the UK.
The company was co-founded by CEO Jahangir Mohammed and joint chief technology officers Daniel Collins and Amit Gupta. It was initially financed with venture capital funding from Sequoi Capital and Benchmark, while a further $50m was pumped into a funding round in April 2014 by the Singapore government's investment fund, Temasek Holdings.
"Together, we can enable service providers, enterprises and the broader ecosystem to connect, automate, manage, and analyse billions of connected things, across any network, creating new revenue streams and opportunities," said Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins in a statement.
"IoT has become a business imperative across the globe. Enterprises in every industry need integrated solutions that give them complete visibility and control over their connected services, while also being simple to implement, manage and scale," said Jasper CEO Jahangir Mohammed (pictured). He added: "By coming together, Jasper and Cisco will help mobile operators and enterprises accelerate their IoT success."
"With Jasper, companies can connect any device - from cars to jet engines to implanted pacemakers - over the cellular networks of the top global service providers, and then manage connectivity of IoT services through Jasper's software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform," explained Cisco in its statement.
It continued: "The Jasper IoT service platform automates the management of IoT services across connected devices and enables companies to create new business models that transform their products into connected services and generate new sources of ongoing revenue.
"The proposed acquisition will allow Cisco to offer a complete IoT solution that is interoperable across devices and works with IoT service providers, application developers and an ecosystem of partners."
Cisco claims that it will continue to build upon the Jasper's IoT service platform and add new services, such as enterprise Wi-Fi, security for connected devices, and advanced analytics to better manage device usage.