Thursday, September 2, 2010

Itron Deal Spurs Cisco Acquisition

The first action to come out of yesterday's collaboration announced by Liberty Lake, Washington-based Itron, and networking maker Cisco Corp.: the acquisition of a third firm, Arch Rock Corporation, by Cisco. Cisco announced today that it has acquired Arch Rock, a maker of Internet Protocol-based, wireless networking technology, as a direct result of its collaboratio effort with Itron on smart metering communications. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. Cisco said that the acquisition will complement its collaboration efforts with Itron, to enable IP-standards based smart metering communications. Arch Rock's technology helps connect smart meters and other devices via a wireless mesh network, using IP standards. Just yesterday, Itron and Cisco said they would collaborate on creating IP-based products to connect smart meters via Cisco's networking equipment.