A San Diego software business acquired by San Jose-based Cisco Systems Inc. is expected to retain nearly all of its employees, with the remainder staying with the company’s Washington, D.C.-based parent.
Cisco said Oct. 20 it is buying CAIS Software Solutions, a subsidiary of CAIS Internet, Inc., a Nasdaq-traded company, for cash and stock valued at the time at about $170 million.
Steve Wimsatt, vice president of market development for CAIS Soft-ware, said Cisco expects to retain 65 of CAIS’ current staff. The remaining 20 employees at CAIS’ Sorrento Mesa office were transferred over to CAIS’ Internet service unit.
“From our perspective, (the acquisition by Cisco) is a great thing,” Wimsatt said. “Our people just aren’t going to be retained. I think we’ll have a lot of new opportunities to capture the market.”
CAIS Software produces software applications used by service providers of broadband Internet access in hotels, apartments, airports and office buildings. The business, formerly called Atcom/Info, was purchased by CAIS in September 1999 in a stock deal then valued at about $50 million.
Started in 1995 by local developer Neal Senturia, Atcom/Info’s original business was producing Internet access kiosks installed in airports, hotels and other public places. Senturia is now the CEO of Mohomine, a local application service provider.
At the time the company was purchased by CAIS, it had about 30 employees, Wimsatt said.
Cisco’s purchase of the CAIS business unit was its first in San Diego and made because CAIS “had something we found compelling,” said Cisco spokeswoman Robyn Jenkins.
The software produced by CAIS Software permits hotels, airports and apartments to offer Internet access to guests who could link their laptop PCs to jacks for a nominal fee, Wimsatt said.
“Our Iport broadband provisioning system is a good fit for several of their product lines.”
Cisco, one of the stellar performers on the Nasdaq in recent years, manufactures the plumbing that runs Internet networks, producing the routers and switches used in the ultra-fast delivery of data.
Since its inception in 1993, the company has made 68 acquisitions, including 20 so far this year. It expects the CAIS purchase to be completed by January.
Cisco, with more than 34,000 employees, reported profits for fiscal 2000 ended July 29 of $2.6 billion on revenues of $18.9 billion, compared to net income of $2 billion on revenues of $12 billion in the previous fiscal year.
