Cisco Systems has acquired Sipura Technology, a company specialized in providing VoIP services, for 68 million dollars and stocks.

Sipura Technology was already offering technological solutions vital to Linksys, Cisco's subsidiary, for the latest VoIP networking devices. Sipura produces adaptors that allow users having broadband connections to place calls using classic analogue telephones. Linksys is one of the main providers of wireless solutions, both for home users and small size companies. The acquisition will have as result Linksys's expansion and a higher position on the VoIP market. In the same time, the activity of the research and development departments will be diversified and new domains will be attacked.
The transaction will be finalized in June this year, and the last details are related to the approval of the main stockholders' group.

Cisco is not the only company getting more involved in the VoIP domain, Verizon has also announced a technology that improves the 911 calling service using a VoIP network.

Overall, all this commotion on the VoIP market has as result the development of this segment, not only for communication service providers but also for the hardware producers, like Cisco.

At the end of last year, IDC estimated that the growth rate for the adoption of VoIP applications will allow the market to reach until 2008 1.7 billion USD.