Benzinga | May 12, 2021 12:13PM EDT

Cisco Acquires Socio Labs, An Event Technology Platform: What You Need To Know

Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) is acquiring Socio Labs, a privately-held event technology platform. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

What Happened: Socio Labs cites Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Google, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) and Hyundai Motor Company GDR (OTC:HYMTF) among its clients.

The Indianapolis-headquartered company operates a European office out of Istanbul, Turkey, and has clients across 40 countries.

In announcing the acquisition, Cisco stated the union with Socio Labs "will enrich Webex Events beyond meetings, webinars and webcasts to also include large-scale, multi-session hybrid events and conferences. The solution will enable live streaming, sponsorship, networking and advanced analytics, along with continuous engagement before, during and after events -- as well as Webex features like polling, Q&A, chat and real-time translation."

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Why It Happened: The Socio Labs acquisition follows Cisco's $730 million acquisitions last December of IMImobile, a British company that provides cloud communications software and services, and Slido, a Slovakian-based audience interaction platform that accommodates more than 7 million participants per month.

Jeetu Patel, senior vice president and general manager of security and collaboration for Cisco, predicted the pandemic-era reliance on virtual platforms for meetings and events, including the company's Webex offering, will not disappear once the public health crisis evaporates.

"The future of events, like the future of work, will be hybrid," said Patel. "With that comes increased complexity of creating inclusive experiences, and meaningful and measurable interactions for both virtual and in-person attendees."

(Photo by Tumisu / Pixabay.)