Cisco Closes Socio Labs Buy In Effort To Boost Webex Events

The tech giant will be giving its live event and conference hosting capabilities a boost within the popular Webex platform with its Socio Labs deal now closed.

Cisco Systems has completed its acquisition of events technology startup Socio Labs for an undisclosed sum, the companies announced on Thursday.

The San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant said that Socio’s technology will now be integrated into Cisco’s popular collaboration platform, Webex, to strengthen its event hosting and large-scale conferencing capabilities.

Privately-held Socio Labs said its customers include Google, Microsoft, PepsiCo and Hyundai.

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Socio Labs offers an event technology platform that gives meeting organizers the tools to host in-person, virtual or hybrid events of any size and format, according to the Indianapolis-based company. Together inside the Webex portfolio, event organizers will be able to create experiences that are inclusive for virtual and in-person attendees of any kind of event, Cisco said. The single platform will let event planners include highly customizable branded registration and ticketing experiences, collect data about attendees, and highlight sponsors and exhibitors, while engaging with attendees.

“Being able to offer novel, refreshing and inclusive experiences for all attendees – whether in person or virtual – is paramount in today’s new era of hybrid events,” Jeetu Patel, executive vice president and general manager, Cisco Security and Collaboration, said in a statement on the completed deal. “The acquisition of Socio Labs is another example of how Cisco is rapidly addressing the evolving needs of our Webex customers and continuing to execute on our vision of providing the most seamless, inclusive, engaging and intelligent platform for meetings and events.”

Via the terms of the deal, the Socio Labs team has joined Cisco’s Collaboration Group under Omar Tawakol, vice president and general manager of the Cisco Customer Experience as a Service business unit, who reports to Patel.

The tech giant has been aggressively building out its Webex platform over as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Cisco has added more than 800 features to Webex in less than a year and has closed three acquisitions for technology that’s been added to the Webex portfolio.

At the same time Cisco announced its Socio Labs deal, the vendor also revealed plans to acquire Sedonasys Systems, also known as Sedona Systems, a maker of communications technologies, for its NetFusion platform. The deal will help Cisco with 5G network slicing, routed optical networking, and disaggregation, according to the company.

Cisco at the end of June also closed its acquisition of risk-based vulnerability management specialist Kenna Security for an undisclosed sum.