Half-year review: 10 major Internet company acquisitions in 2018

The networking market has been an area of ​​frequent acquisitions, especially in the first half of this year. The industry's major players have dominated, with networking giant Cisco acquiring three companies and HPE also making a high-profile acquisition of Plexxi.

For those involved in the first half of the year's acquisitions, the goal was to take steps to create more complete, core-to-edge or fully integrated solutions that would enable customers and partners to accelerate sales, simplify environments and reduce pressure on IT budgets.

There was also movement in the unified communications space, with Plantronics acquiring Polycom for $2 billion to begin offering one of the broadest portfolios in the industry.

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Here's a look at the 10 biggest dot-com acquisitions of the year so far.

10. FireMon acquires Lumeta

Purchase price: Undisclosed

FireMon announced plans in May to acquire Lumeta, a network situational awareness provider, to help security teams identify all assets in their networks and understand how those assets are connected. FireMon, based in Overland Park, Connecticut, said the acquisition of Lumeta, based in Somerset, New Jersey, will help enterprises discover, map and analyze on-premises and cloud connections. Customers can use Lumeta's technology to identify new devices, routers and cloud connections, expanding the capabilities of the FireMon platform to cover previously unknown exposure areas.

9. 8X8 acquires MarianaIQ

Purchase price: Undisclosed

8x8 acquired AI marketing startup MarianaIQ in May, adding new features based on artificial intelligence and machine learning to their cloud-based product portfolio. Unified communications as a service and contact center provider 8x8 said the acquisition will help customers build a system for employee communication and customer interaction. 8x8 said that adding AI to the new X series, a platform that combines communication, collaboration and contact center solutions, allows companies to better understand the data they collect from their employees and end customers every day.

8. Live Action acquires Savvius

Purchase price: Undisclosed

LiveAction acquired Savvius, a network diagnostics specialist, in June, taking an important step toward building a fully integrated network management platform. LiveAction, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, is an enterprise network management and visualization player. LiveAction said in a statement that it plans to use the acquisition to build a complete network performance monitoring and diagnostic platform. The acquisition will enable Savvius to develop its Omnipliance, Omnipeek and Insight products more quickly, while expanding LiveAction's influence in the enterprise market and multi-vendor environments.

7. Cisco acquires Skyport Systems

Purchase price: Undisclosed

Cisco has had a very busy start to the year, especially on the hyperconvergence front. In January, Cisco made major improvements to its HyperFlex platform and announced plans to acquire hyperconvergence startup Skyport Systems. Skyport offers cloud-managed, ultra-secure hyperconvergence systems. The acquisition will help Cisco address security concerns, and Skyport's intellectual property will likely be used in Cisco's product portfolio.

6. Cisco acquires July Systems

Purchase price: Undisclosed

Cisco announced in June that it would acquire private company July Systems to strengthen its location services business. July Systems' platform uses Wi-Fi analytics to enable retail stores, hotels, conference centers and other large facilities to gain in-depth insights into their customers. July Systems solutions are cloud-based and sold to customers on a subscription basis. Cisco and its Meraki division have been working with July Systems for many years as an OEM for its mobile experience. July Systems will become part of Cisco's Enterprise Networking Group, led by Scott Harrell, senior vice president and general manager. Founded in 2001, July Systems has raised nearly $60 million in funding from top venture capital firms.

5. Windstream acquires MASS Communications

Purchase price: $37.5 million

Windstream acquired privately held telecommunications network management provider MASS Communications for $37.5 million in March, providing partners and customers with a broad range of customized voice, network and global cloud solutions. The acquisition positions Windstream as a "customer-first" company with a strong track record of revenue growth. MASS Communications, headquartered in New York, is a 100% channel-centric provider that provides customized voice and network solutions, as well as managed SD-WAN and security services to small and medium-sized businesses.

4. Ribbon acquires Edgewater Networks

Purchase price: $110 million

Ribbon Communications said that its $110 million acquisition of Edgewater Networks will create a complete, core-to-edge product portfolio and fully integrated software-defined WAN services. Ribbon said it will use Edgewater's portfolio to enhance multiple products, including Kandy's unified communications as a service solution. Ribbon said Edgewater will provide Kandy with new capabilities around analytics and service assurance at the network edge.

3. HPE acquires Plexxi

Purchase price: Undisclosed

In May, HPE acquired Plexxi, a startup based in Nashua, New Hampshire, USA, a provider of software-defined data fabric framework technology, adding a key part to the next-generation hybrid IT platform. The acquisition provides HPE, which is positioned as a leading provider of next-generation computing, network and storage infrastructure, with additional software-defined capabilities. Plexxi will support HPE's SimpliVity hyperconverged infrastructure products and its Synergy composable infrastructure, which uses a next-generation data network structure that automatically creates or rebalances bandwidth based on workload needs.

2. Cisco acquires Accompany

Purchase price: $270 million

Cisco acquired Accompany, a privately held developer of an AI-driven relationship intelligence platform that sales teams can use to find new prospects, navigate sales cycles and strengthen relationships, in May. Cisco acquired the Los Altos, California-based startup for $270 million in cash and equity awards, and Accompany CEO Amy Chang became senior vice president of Cisco's Collaboration Technology Group. Rowan Trollope, who previously held that position, left Cisco to join Five9 as CEO.

1. Plantronics acquires Polycom

Purchase price: $2 billion

Plantronics has acquired unified communications and collaboration provider Polycom for $2 billion, making Plantronics one of the companies that can provide the broadest product portfolio in the unified communications and collaboration industry. Through this acquisition, Plantronics has stepped out of the peripheral equipment business and directly entered the unified communications system market, giving Plantronics the scale needed to improve interoperability, reduce complexity, and increase customer retention with unified communications competitors. Plantronics said that its personal channel plans, strategies, and leadership will not change for the time being.