Cisco has acquired Richards-Zeta Building Intelligence, a privately held California-based middleware provider Richards-Zeta will be integrated with the networking giant's Emerging Technologies Group at its Globalisation Centre East in Bangalore, India.

Cisco will integrate the company with its Energywise building management and energy use offering which uses Cisco Catalyst switches to monitor energy use of PCs and wireless access points and will be extended to measure total building energy use.

The company said: "Energy consumption is a global issue, and customers are increasingly demanding that energy management services are delivered over a converged IP architecture. Richards-Zeta's intelligent middleware, building-systems expertise of our partners and our networking technologies, will deliver complete solutions to maximize operational and energy efficiencies and provide cost and carbon savings for customers." Richards-Zeta is privately held and financial details were not disclosed.

Cisco will issue its second quarter financial results tomorrow (February 4th).