Cisco Buys Startup ThousandEyes to Add to Software, Services

Ian King and Liana Baker (Bloomberg) -- Cisco Systems Inc. said it will buy startup ThousandEyes Inc. to help extend its push into software and services.

The world’s biggest maker of networking gear is paying about $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

San Francisco-based ThousandEyes sells software that checks whether the end-user of an internet service is getting what’s intended, and traces how that service is delivered to find potential problems. Cisco expects the deal to close before the end of its fiscal first quarter, it said in a release.

Under Chief Executive Officer Charles Robbins, Cisco has made acquisitions to boost its software and services capabilities. He’s trying to lessen dependence on one-time sales of expensive hardware and shift to recurring revenue and the more dependable profits of long-term contracts.

“By bringing together Cisco’s strength in network and application performance with ThousandEyes’ visibility into the internet, customers will now have an end-to-end view into the digital delivery of applications and services over the internet,” Cisco said in the statement.

ThousandEyes will complement the business Cisco has developed around AppDynamics, which the networking giant acquired in 2017. Cisco regularly touts the successful integration and growth of AppDynamics, which provides monitoring and analysis of application performance.

Related:The Pandemic Puts the Internet’s Resiliency – and Fragility – On Display

ThousandEyes is backed by several venture capital firms, including Sequoia Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. The startup has raised about $110 million in financing and its last known valuation was $670 million last year, according to PitchBook.