Cisco to Acquire Intucell, Enhance Service Provider Mobility Group
Cisco to Acquire Intucell, Enhance Service Provider Mobility Group by UCStrategies Staff
Cisco Systems, Inc. will acquire Intucell Ltd., a company specializing in “advanced self-optimizing network (SON) software,” which can be used by mobile carriers to configure and manage their cellular networks.
Intucell’s acquisition is estimated to close during Cisco’s third quarter fiscal year 2013. A cash payment of around $475 million plus retention-based incentives will be paid by Cisco. Upon acquisition of Intucell and its current business operations, employees of Intucell will be assimilated into Cisco’s Service Provider Mobility Group and will then report to Shailesh Shukla, vice president and general manager of Software and Applications Group at Cisco.
Cisco mentioned the development of LTE 4G networks as one of the main reasons mobile operators look for new cost-effective capabilities. With Intucell’s “application and vendor-agnostic” networking technology portfolio that enables enhanced communication among cellular networking sites, Cisco can provide solutions to mobile operators to help them prevent dropped calls and unreliable service.
During periods of mounting and intense workloads on networks, mobile carriers can make use of Intucell’s SON software platform to meet demands associated with quality of service, real-time identification of issues, and intelligent network adjustments.
Technologies dealing with optimization, in particular, are likely to become widespread in the future when businesses are forced to do more with fewer resources. And Intucell’s technology is said to embody the type of solutions expected to impinge on the needs and concerns of mobile service operators, leading Channelnomics’ Dave Courbanou to comment on Cisco’s acquisition of Intucell as a “very strategic play move.”
Moreover, SON’s inherent software-based model can supplement the area where Cisco may exercise dominance in terms of hardware. This may be instrumental in helping Cisco keep its existing customers, as well as spread out to both cloud-based environments and areas controlled primarily by software.
“The mobile network of the future must be able to scale intelligently to address growing and often unpredictable traffic patterns, while also enabling carriers to generate incremental revenue streams,” remarked Kelly Ahuja, senior vice president and general manager of the Service Provider Mobility Group at Cisco. “Through the addition of Intucell’s industry-leading SON technology, Cisco’s service provider mobility portfolio provides operators with unparalleled network intelligence and the unique ability to not only accommodate exploding network traffic, but to profit from it.”
Cisco also then declares that Intucell’s acquisition demonstrates the company’s “innovation framework and supports Cisco’s five foundational priorities to lead the market in networking across all customer segments.” (KOM) Link. Link.