Cisco to invest 1 billion reais in Rio Center

Cisco Systems Inc. will invest 1 billion reais ($547.4 million) to build an innovation and technology center in Rio de Janeiro, Estado de S. Paulo reported, without saying where it got the information.

Rodrigo Abreu, Cisco's president in Brazil, will make the announcement April 2 during a company event, the newspaper said. San Jose, California-based Cisco will inaugurate the Rio technology center in the second half, according to Estado.

Cisco spokesman Felipe Lamus declined to comment to Bloomberg News on the report. In a separate e-mail to Bloomberg, Cisco said it will make an "important announcement" about its Brazil operations during its Cisco Plus Brazil 2012 event on April 2.

(Published by Bloomberg - March 31, 2012)