Cisco to Buy Selsius Systems for $145 Million

Cisco Systems Inc., the top computer-networking company, agreed to buy Selsius Systems Inc. from Lagardere for $145 million in stock and cash to obtain products that route voice traffic over the Internet. Dallas-based Selsius’ equipment allows voice traffic to be sent over computer networks by breaking it into so-called packets of data. Packet-based networks such as the Internet handle traffic more efficiently than traditional circuit-based phone networks. Cisco said it will initially sell Selsius’ private branch exchange products to small businesses and corporate departments and develop more powerful versions for large businesses. Founded in 1997, Selsius has annual revenue of about $3 million. San Jose-based Cisco shares rose $1.44 to close at $52.13 on Nasdaq.