July 2021, you may have heard news that Cisco acquires Socio Labs. Well, that is the fact—which has been announced to public through its press release. Cisco announced that Cisco to acquire Indy startup Socio to bring hybrid events to Webex. The plan of acquisition took time on July 8 2021, and it had been announced by Cisco founders as well.
What is Socio Labs?
Some of you may not have known about Socio. Mentioned in its press release, Socio is a modern online event platform that enables its users to get multi-track virtual, multi-session, hybrid, and in-person of web conferences. Not only that, as one of virtual event companies, Socio Labs provides its users to self-manage the events held—from registration until post-event analytics.
Now as it is to join Cisco, Cisco Labs aiming to provide its potential users a comprehensive virtual event app. Due to the pandemic, events cannot be held offline as previously conducted. It’s like an overnight and impromptu change that requires companies to resume the activities while going online.
According to Jeetu Patel, the future events are mainly held as hybrid events; meaning that there will be a fusion between online and offline events being hold. Then, to bridge the need of inclusive application, Cisco made a move by acquiring Socio Labs and providing Webex powerful tools to help customers get what they need from an online conference platform.
This Socio Labs acquisition is a prospective move after the previous acquisition of Slido by Cisco. These acquisitions are expected to make a cost-effective, comprehensive, and easy to use virtual conference platform to be used by various types of users.
Key Features Brought by the Acquisition
The three key features mentioned to be combined are as follows:
- Cisco events Webex’ innovations such as the background noise removal, gesture recognition, speech enhancement, real-time translation, immersive share, as well as the customized stage layouts.
- Socio Labs’ technology of hybrid event virtual meeting platforms, which also manages the full cycle of events—enabling users to control the event from registration until post-event analytics in only single software.
- Slido’s features of audience engagement which lets the event planned to provide polling, Q&A, trivia, and gamification. These features will make the events conducted via virtual conference to be more enjoyable and is expected to gain attendee’s interest.
When Will the Acquisition be Finalized?
According to the official press release of Cisco on its website, this acquisition is planned to close in Cisco’s Q4 of fiscal year 2021. However, the time is still subject to change since there are closing conditions and various regulatory approvals to comply with in order to the companies proceed with the closing.
Once the acquisition is completed, the team of Socio Labs will later join the team of Webex Customer Experience which is Omar Tawakol—Webex vice president and general manager as well. The team will also be reporting to the Security & Collaboration Group which is led by Jeetu Patel—the general manager which also happens to be the senior vice president.
So, that’s the information regarding the acquisition of Socio Labs by Cisco. Together with Slido, the two tech companies are expected to produce a great invention of virtual events software which will accommodate users to conduct great virtual events/meetings.
