Cisco Systems has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Class Data Systems of Israel in a stock and cash transaction valued at $US50 million.
Class Data's products are designed to enhance the delivery of data over IP networks using a system known as policy networking, which allows a network administrator to classify and prioritise data traffic.
Founded in 1996, Class Data has 34 employees in Ra'anana, Israel, and Cupertino, California. The company's design team will remain in Israel and become part of Cisco's Enterprise line of business. Arad Naveh, Class Data's president and CEO, and the company's marketing team will move to San Jose, California.
Cisco said the acquisition will position it to offer a complete range of services and products for quality of service networking.
Cisco expects to incur a related one-time charge on after-tax earnings of 2 cents to 4 cents per share for its fourth fiscal quarter of 1998, the company said. The deal is expected to be closed in June, subject to conditions.
Cisco, in San Jose, California, can be reached on the World Wide Web at http://www.cisco.com/. Class Data can be contacted on the Web at http://www.classdata.com/.