London, 18^th December 2013 – Cisco and Finmeccanica today announced a new global partner agreement that will combine their complementary technology strengths in the defense and civil industries to create innovative products and systems for the global marketplace.

Building on a long-standing and successful relationship between the two companies, the expanded, collaborative alliance combines Finmeccanica’s industry expertise and solutions with Cisco’s IT, networking and communications innovation. This will enable the two companies to bring together their knowledge and expertise to jointly create industry-leading service offerings and solutions targeting the defense, security and aerospace industries, as well as the emerging needs in sustainability and smart connected cities and environments that both companies can take to market.

The partner agreement between Finmeccanica and Cisco also expands the two companies’ sales collaboration globally and accelerates coordinated joint go-to-market activities at both  global and country levels.

Highlights of the Cisco-Finmeccanica agreement:

• Cisco will provide Finmeccanica with an extensive range of industry leading networking, design and engineering expertise from Cisco^® Services along with networking equipment and infrastructure.
• Finmeccanica global sales and engineering teams will have access to Cisco sales and technology training programs, such as Cisco Sales Expert and Cisco Vertical Solutions Architect.
• Finmeccanica, as a Cisco Global Specialty Integrator, will be allowed to embed Cisco technologies into its own systems and solutions in all geographies, where a strong resilience and a high quality of networking services are required.
• The agreement will also enable Finmeccanica to partner directly with Cisco globally and resell select networking technology and collaborate in the development of new solutions.
• Cisco will be able to utilize Finmeccanica’s technology and products where appropriate, for example, machine learning and analytics forecasting for building management

This relationship is a significant step forward for both companies due to the opportunities in the global systems integration field for both the defense and civilian markets. By utilizing both companies’ technology and expertise Finmeccanica and Cisco will be positioning as world-wide leaders in innovative systems and solution development, offering superior and ground-breaking products and strengthening the respective strategies as system integrator and IT leader.

About Finmeccanica

Finmeccanica is Italy's main industrial group, leader in the high technology field, and ranks among the top ten groups at world level in the Aerospace, Defence and Security sectors. Listed on the Milan Stock Exchange (FNC IM; SIFI.MI), with revenues of approximately 17 billion Euro, over 68,000 employees, 150 operating and commercial locations and 345 production facilities in 50 different countries world-wide, Finmeccanica is an international and multicultural group with an important presence in its four domestic markets: Italy, United Kingdom, the United States and Poland. For further information, please go to www.finmeccanica.com.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. For ongoing news, please go to http://thenetwork.cisco.com.