A breakdown of Cisco Systems’ acquisition history as the company nears No. 200

Cisco Systems office in North Sydney, Australia. (Source Mergr)

Sometime this year (very likely this year at least), computer networking powerhouse Cisco Systems will make its 200th acquisition. By our count on Mergr — Cisco has made 193 acquisitions thus far — including 4 in 2016.

That’s a lot of acquisitions and when you consider the company didn’t acquire its first until 7 years after its founding, Cisco has been a consistent M&A machine ever since, acquiring an average of 8 to 9 companies a year.

To put 200 into context, only 8 tech companies have more then 100. Google is right behind Cisco at 182 — followed by IBM, Microsoft, Yahoo, Oracle, and HP.

Cisco is somewhat unusual amongst acquirers in that it maintains a page listing every acquisition. Analyzing this list in Mergr, here are some stats and figures based on Cisco’s acquisition history thus far.

Total #

193 (as of April 10, 2016)

Total Spend (aggregate of disclosed deal values)

$73B

Year with Most

2000 (20)

# of Countries w/ at least 1 acquisition

14

Top Country

United States (164)

Top US States

California (99)

Massachusetts (15)

Texas (10)

States where Cisco has made acquisitions. (Source Mergr)

Top Countries (non-US)

UK (7)

Israel (5)

Denmark (3)

Countries where Cisco has made acquisitions. (Source Mergr)

Largest

Monterey Networks, Inc. ($7.4B in 1999)

Cerent Corp. ($6.9B in 1999)

Scientific-Atlanta LLC ($6.9B in 2005)

Largest (non-US)

NDS Group Ltd. ($5B in 2012, UK)

Tandberg ASA($3.3B in 2010, Norway)

Qeyton Systems AB ($800M in 2000, Sweden)

# Valued > $1B

12 (Jasper at $1.4B was most recent)

# Valued Between $100M and $1B

67

# Valued < $100M

45

Most notable and quickest mistake?

Pure Digital (makers of Flip Video). Pure was acquired in 2009 for $590M and shut down less then 24 months later.

What about the sell-side? Does Cisco ever divest?

Rarely.

Cisco sold Linksys to Belkin in 2013 and an equipment business to Technicolor last year. Its only divestiture to a PE firm was Fibercore to HIG Capital in 2011 (an asset acquired through Scientific Atlanta in 2009).

So when will No. 200 happen?

Unless the bubble truly bursts year 2000 style — when Cisco’s acquisition appetite went from 20 in 2000 to 4 in 2001, sometime late 2016 or early 2017 seems most likely.

Note: Interested in researching PE or Corporate M&A? Check out PE and M&A db Mergr (www.mergr.com).