Cisco has agreed to acquire privately held CoreOptics, a provider of digital signal processing (DSP) offerings for optical networking applications, as the networking giant continues to invest in its core networking business.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $99m in cash and retention-based incentives in exchange for all shares of CoreOptics.

The acquisition of CoreOptics, which is based in San Jose and has majority of its employee base in Nuremberg and Gerlingen, Germany, will enable Cisco to equip service provider customers with 100 Gigabits per second (Gbps) transmission technology to scale their networks to meet the demands of internet protocol traffic driven by video, mobility and cloud services.

Cisco said that the acquisition expands its optical presence in Europe, builds on its existing European operations in Monza, Italy, and will contribute to continued innovation in optical networking. The acquisition will also bring to Cisco a team in digital ASIC design, advanced modulation formats, as well as optical systems, applications and network architecture.

By enabling high speeds across an existing infrastructure, Cisco and CoreOptics will address the challenge facing service providers of accommodating the growth in network traffic while managing tight capital expenditure budgets.

Surya Panditi, vice president and general manager for service provider access and transport technology at Cisco, said: “With this acquisition, Cisco reinforces its commitment to continue to invest in its core networking business and to deliver IP next-generation networks at 100 Gbps and beyond.

“We are focused on continuing to deliver an industry-leading portfolio of routing, switching and optical transport systems that enable our service provider customers to better address the ever-present business challenge of managing tight capital and operating budgets while accommodating the tremendous growth in network traffic.”

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the second half of calendar year 2010.