Dive Brief:
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Cisco reported Monday that it acquired Worklife, a San Francisco-based company that makes meeting productivity and collaboration software.
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Cisco said it intends to combine the Worklife platform with Cisco Spark, its messaging, meeting and calling package, to bolster its features.
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Worklife’s virtual meeting platform allows workers to collaborate on documents, notes, agendas, and tasks, according to CIO.com
Dive Insight:
Improving workforce productivity is a growing interest for tech companies, with several companies competing to offer services that make work easier and more collaborative.
"With the Worklife team onboard, we see an opportunity to build on the virtual meeting experience that the Cisco Spark platform currently provides, and enhance meeting productivity across the board," said Rob Salvagno, head of Cisco's M&A and venture investment team, in a blog post.
Worklife is the seventh company Cisco has purchased this year as it works to pivot its business. As the market shifts, Cisco has struggled to maintain its revenue stream. Revenue for Cisco’s core businesses—switching and routing systems— has been steadily weakening. In August, Cisco announced plans to lay off 5,500 employees, or approximately 7% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring effort.
Last month, Cisco and Apple announced they were deepening their partnership with CallKit, a new API which allows apps like Cisco Spark to take advantage of new features in iOS 10.
