News & Updates

Why Cisco and Jasper's Union Matters to IoT

By Terry Hughes / Feb 17, 2016

Just last week one of the biggest acquisitions in the Internet of Things space took place when Cisco snatched up IoT lifecycle management solution provider, Jasper. The tech world is buzzing over the news and rightly so because here are the Top 5 reasons why this acquisition matters!

1) Jasper became a rare unicorn by actually meeting investor valuations with its buyout

Tech valuations have always been a subject of scrutiny in the market and usually companies grossly overvalued end up disappointing when trying to meet their expected potential. Jasper’s series F financing round, led by Temasek Holdings, fetched $50 million at a $1.4 billion valuation and could have easily been the same disappointing story as other tech companies. Two years after this massive financing round, Jasper lived up to their billion-dollar value, emphasizing that this company was different and their value was real and tangible. As one of the largest IoT investments this year, you can expect Cisco and Jasper to bring the innovation investors knew they were capable of to the space.

2) The acquisition emphasizes that Cisco has serious motivations in the IoT space

In early January 2014 Cisco’s CEO John Chambers declared at the International Consumer Electronics Show that the IoT market would grow to $19 trillion over the next decade. Not only has Cisco outlined their strategy for ongoing revenue growth through IoT (21 percent by 2022 in Chambers’ CES presentation) but they made the first legitimate move in the industry to stand behind their strategy and support what they call the biggest transition for the Internet since birth of the Internet.

3) Cisco is now poised to have the first end-to-end IoT solution

If you were to compare the offerings of Cisco and Jasper independently, you would find little to no overlap, but that is where the real value of the acquisition lies. Now that they have combined their competitive advantages, Cisco has all it needs to be a dominate force in the IoT space. Cisco now has a complete end-to-end solution, from the hardware to the IoT service platform.

4) Cisco is redefining their hardware value while Jasper is redefining their IoT platform as a service

As Cisco has seen slower sales for their traditional networking gear and weak demand in emerging markets for their hardware line up, Jasper and their IoT platform service is a key strategy to gaining long term monetizing options. The end result leaves Cisco poised to utilize their hardware as low cost gateways to becoming their user’s service provider and ensuring maximum revenue growth from their existing customer base.

5) Cisco is ready to hit the ground running with Jasper fully integrated into their ecosystem

Cisco has announced that Jasper’s CEO, Jahangir Mohammed will join Cisco to head a new IoT software business unit; he will be reporting to Rowan Trollope (SVP and General Manager, IoT and Collaboration Technology Group). This leads us to believe that Jasper will be fully absorbed into Cisco, ensuring an IoT play that is clearly defined, well-funded and fast moving. While this is speculation, one thing can be sure, Cisco and Jasper will be defining architects for the advancements and evolution of the Internet of Things.