Cisco Announces Its $850 Million Spin-In - NYTimes.com

A major milestone for software-defined networking

"Cisco has notified its employees that it has funded an advanced networking startup, called Insieme, with $100 million, with the right to eventually buy the company for as much as $750 million more.
As reported in Bits last month Insieme was founded by three Cisco employees who have previously two other created Cisco-funded companies, one in data storage and one in high-speed networking. Like Insieme, these companies were designed to be purchased by Cisco, a creation known as a “spin in” company. The spin-ins can create disruptive products quickly, but also risk hurting company morale by making some star employees multimillionaires with little risk, while others are left behind."

Cisco Announces Its $850 Million Spin-In - NYTimes.com