Topspin bought for $250 million

today announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held

of Mountain View, California.

Topspin is a provider of server fabric switches, which are designed to connect servers together into a grid, and then provide network and storage connectivity to that server grid. Cisco says the acquisition strengthens the company’s ability to provide customers with specialised networking technology and services to allow them to build their data centres in a flexible, grid-like fashion.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $250 million in cash and options for Topspin. The acquisition is subject to various standard closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2005 ending July 30, 2005. Upon close of the transaction, Topspin will join Cisco's Data Center, Switching and Wireless Technology Group, led by Senior Vice President Luca Cafiero.

"By adding Topspin's server fabric switches and virtualisation software, alongside our industry leading portfolio of Ethernet and SAN switches we are able to offer our customers compelling end-to-end data centre switching capabilities," said Luca Cafiero, Senior Vice President, Data Center, Switching and Wireless Technology Group, Cisco Systems.