Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Acquires Artificial Intelligence Firm MindMeld

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Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) Acquires Artificial Intelligence Firm MindMeld

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) announced that it is acquiring San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) firm MindMeld in a deal valued at $125 million.

The networking giant said on Thursday that MindMeld’s AI and machine learning technology enables customers to build intelligent and human-like conversational interfaces for any application or device. The technology helps users interact with voice and chat assistants “in a more natural way.”

Cisco believes that MindMeld’s technology can power new conversational interfaces for its collaboration products and revolutionize how users will interact with its technology. For example, customers can able interact with Cisco Spark through natural language commands.

“At Cisco, we believe that AI and machine learning will play an increasingly vital role across all parts of our business. Given our industry leadership in networking, collaboration, data center, analytics, and unified communications, we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of AI and machine learning and embed it across the network and the cloud,” Cisco said in a statement.

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) said that it can use MindMeld’s technology to bring voice AI to meeting rooms throughout the world.

“The workplace of the future is one powered by AI,” Rowan Trollope, senior vice president, Cisco IoT and Applications Group, said in the statement. “Integrating MindMeld into the Cisco Spark platform will transform how users interact in Cisco Spark Spaces, Cisco Spark Meetings, and Cisco Spark Care.”

Following the completion of the acquisition, MindMeld’s team will join Cisco’s Cloud Collaboration Group, led by Senior Vice President and General Manager Jens Meggers, as the Cognitive Collaboration team.

The acquisition is expected to close in Cisco’s fourth quarter of fiscal year 2017, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory process.

Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) were trading down 0.65% on Thursday. The stock is up nearly 11% so far this year. During the last 12 months, CSCO has surged 25.56%.