Cisco said Monday it is acquiring BroadSoft for $55 per share, or an aggregate purchase price of approximately $1.9 billion net of cash.

BroadSoft, a cloud communications firm headquartered in Gaithersburg, MD, brings an open interface and standards-based cloud voice and contact center solutions delivered via Service Provider partners to the table.

Cisco hopes combining BroadSoft’s solutions with its meetings, hardware and services portfolio, will enable it to offer a full suite of collaboration capabilities.

“As businesses continue to move toward the cloud in search of simplicity and speed, joining Cisco will allow us to deliver best-in-class collaboration tools and services,” said Michael Tessler, president and CEO, BroadSoft.  “BroadSoft’s hosted offerings, sold through the Service Providers and aimed at small and medium businesses, are highly complementary to Cisco’s on-premises and enterprise-centric HCS offerings.”

“Together, Cisco and BroadSoft will deliver a robust suite of collaboration capabilities across every market segment,” said Rowan Trollope, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Applications Business Group.

BroadSoft employees will join Cisco’s Unified Communications Technology Group led by Vice President and General Manager Tom Puorro, under the Applications Group led by Trollope, according to Cisco.