Cisco Systems Inc. will pay about $100 million in cash and assumed options for Securent Inc., a provider of enterprise software products. Securent's software will enable Cisco customers to protect and secure application data regardless of vendor, platform or operating system.

Securent has 57 employees in Mountain View, Calif., with development operations in Hyderabad, India. The acquisition, Cisco's 125th, is expected to close in the second quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2008. Upon closing, the Securent team and technology will move into Cisco's collaboration software group led by senior vice president Don Proctor.

Just after announcing an agreement with Alibaba Group, the largest e-commerce company in China, Cisco said it intends to collaborate with China Development Bank to invest in innovative Chinese companies. The program was announced at a press conference after a signing ceremony attended by Gao Jian, vice governor of the CDB and John Chambers, chairman and CEO of Cisco (pictured above). Over the last several years, Cisco has invested over $700 million in both direct and indirect venture and private equity investments in China. During the past 5 years, Cisco says investments from normal business operations exceeded $8.5 billion. The company is now pledging a $16 billion series of initiatives to expand in China with investments in manufacturing, venture capital and education efforts. — Baz Hiralal

See the release on Cisco's 125th acquisition
Go to the China development story; see the release here