Cisco Systems, Inc. has announced that they intend to acquire Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) enterprise Internet of Things (IoT) platform provider Jasper Technologies, Inc. for $1.4 billion in cash and assumed equity awards, plus additional retention-based incentives.

Founded in 2004, Jasper’s cloud-based platform facilitates the launch, management, and monetization of IoT deployments.

The company’s turnkey SaaS Control Center allows enterprise customers to accelerate their time to market, providing automated real-time visibility and control over networked devices and services and ensures higher service reliability through real-time intelligence and monitoring of changing network conditions.

“Jasper Control Center is the only IoT platform that intelligently adapts to your business needs, providing a vast array of flexible ways to automate your IoT services,” the company claims. “Our proprietary automation engine makes it easy to launch new services, optimize performance on the fly, lower operational costs, and continuously deliver exceptional customer experiences.”

The platform itself integrates with cellular networks allowing companies to connect any type of device, from cars to jet engines to implanted pacemakers, and the service has proved popular at that, with Jasper claiming to be the industry’s leading IoT service platform in terms of number of enterprises and service providers; the company has more than 3,500 customers including AT&T, McDonald’s, General Motors, Ford, Amazon, SoftBank, Subaru, and Uber to name but a few.

“I’m incredibly excited about this news and believe it will help accelerate the digitization journey of our enterprise customers,” Cisco’s head of mergers & acquisitions, and venture investment team Rob Salvagno said in a blog post. “Jasper understands that enterprises making connected products need a simple, scalable and interoperable IoT service platform that can support the billions of connected devices estimated to be connected to the network in the next five years. Together, Cisco and Jasper will deliver exactly that to our customers.”

IoT expansion

The deal will see Cisco now being able to offer a complete IoT solution that is interoperable across devices and works with IoT service providers, application developers and an ecosystem of partners.

Cisco said it will continue to build upon the Jasper IoT service platform and add new IoT services such as enterprise Wi-Fi, security for connected devices, and advanced analytics to better manage device usage.

Prior to acquisition, Jasper has raised $205.3 million over 6 rounds from investors including Tamesek Holdings, Sequoia Capital, Crescendo Ventures, Integral Capital Partners, Benchmark, and Bridgescale Partners.

The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of fiscal year 2016, subject to customary closing conditions.

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