Cisco Announces Agreement to Acquire WebEx

Cisco and WebEx today announced a definitive agreement for Cisco to acquire WebEx. WebEx is a market leader in on-demand collaboration applications, and its network-based solution for delivering business-to-business collaboration extends Cisco’s vision for Unified Communications, particularly within the Small to Medium Business (SMB) segment.


Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will commence a cash tender offer to purchase all of the outstanding shares of WebEx for $57 per share and will assume outstanding share-based awards, for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $3.2 billion, or approximately $2.9 billion net of WebEx’s existing cash balance. The transaction will be accounted for in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and the acquisition of WebEx is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Cisco’s fiscal year 2007. Cisco anticipates this transaction will be neutral to its non-GAAP FY2008 earnings.

The acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is subject to various standard closing conditions, including approval under Hart Scott Rodino and similar laws outside the U.S.

“As collaboration in the workplace becomes increasingly important, companies are looking for rich communications tools to help them work more effectively and efficiently,” said Charles H. Giancarlo, Chief Development Officer at Cisco. "The combination of Cisco and WebEx will deliver compelling solutions accelerating this next wave of business communications.

Cisco believes the network is a platform for all forms of communications and collaboration, and WebEx’s technology and services portfolio complement Cisco’s leadership in the Unified Communications and collaboration market, while providing Cisco with a new and unique business model to expand its presence in the fast-growing SMB market" Giancarlo continued.

“Cisco and WebEx share a vision of web collaboration as a key to accelerating business processes and critical to durable competitive advantage,” said Subrah S. Iyar, CEO of WebEx. “Cisco’s global reach and customer focus will help us extend our core web collaboration applications and continue to broaden the services we offer through the WebEx Connect platform.”

WebEx’s service portfolio includes technologies and services that allow companies to engage in real-time and asynchronous data conferences over the Internet as well as share web-based documents and workspaces that help improve productivity, performance and efficiency of workers in any size organization. WebEx’s subscription-based services strategy has been key to its success, and Cisco plans to preserve this business model going forward.

Following the close of the transaction, WebEx will become a part of Cisco’s Development Organization while maintaining its unique business model. Mr. Iyar will report directly to Mr.Giancarlo.

WebEx was founded in 1995 and held its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in July 2000. The company has close to 2200 employees. For FY2006, which ended December 31, 2006, WebEx reported revenues of $380 million.