20 March 2003 Networking giant Cisco Systems is acquiring SignalWorks, a Mountain View, California-based provider of IP telephony software, for $13.5 million in stock.
Cisco said it will integrate SignalWork’s voice and digital signal processing technology into its own communications products in a bid to bolster its leadership of the IP telephony sector. According to Synergy Research Group, the IP telephony market was worth $900 million in 2002 but will grow to $4.3 billion by 2006.
Although Cisco’s IP telephony business is dwarfed by its network routing equipment business, IP telephony has become a key way for Cisco to win new customers among small and medium sized businesses.
The technology, which allows data, voice and video to be transmitted over a single network infrastructure, promises to generate considerable cost savings and is expected to prove particularly popular with smaller businesses and service providers. To date, Cisco says it has shipped 1.5 million IP phones to more than 6,000 customers.
Separately, Cisco also announced plans to repurchase up to $5 billion of its common stock. Since January 2003, the company has repurchased 317 million shares valued at $4.4 billion.
