Cisco 'nearing deal' to acquire BroadSoft for almost US$2b

San Francisco

CISCO Systems Inc, the world's largest networking gear manufacturer, is nearing a deal to buy US telecommunications software firm BroadSoft Inc for close to US$2 billion, a person familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

The deal, which comes after it was first reported in August that BroadSoft was exploring a sale, would allow Cisco to further diversify away from its stagnating switches and routers business by giving it a stronger foothold in selling unified communications software to big telecommunications firms.