Cisco Systems announced Sunday that it is acquiring Meraki, a privately held cloud networking company, for $1.2 billion.

San Francisco-based Meraki allows companies to manage their Wi-Fi networks remotely.

“The acquisition of Meraki enables Cisco to make simple, secure, cloud managed networks available to our global customer base of mid-sized businesses and enterprises," said Rob Soderbery, senior vice president, Cisco Enterprise Networking Group, in a statement. "These companies have the same IT needs as larger organizations, but without the resources to integrate complex IT solutions.” 

Last week Cisco Systems reported first quarter earnings that beat analysts' estimates. The company is one of the Triangle's larger employers with more than 5,000 employees and contractors at its Research Triangle Park campus.

Cisco expects the Meraki deal to close in the second quarter of Cisco's fiscal year.