Friday, 7 July 2006

Cisco to Acquire Network Access Vendor Meetinghouse

Cisco Systems Inc. has agreed to acquire privately held Meetinghouse Communications, a provider of client-side 802.1X supplicant security software that allows enterprise customers to restrict network access to only authorised users and/or host devices attempting to gain access to networked resources through both wired and wireless media.

"The Meetinghouse software supplicant is a natural extension to existing Cisco initiatives such as the Cisco Self Defending Network via Network Admission Control (NAC) and the Cisco Compatible Extensions (CCX) program,” said Brett Galloway, vice president and general manager, Wireless Networking Business Unit (WNBU).

Under the terms of this agreement, Cisco will pay about USD 43.7 million in cash and assumed options for Meetinghouse. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2007, ending October 28, 2006.

Upon close of the transaction, Meetinghouse team and products will be integrated into the WNBU, reporting into Galloway.