10. Cisco Acquires MindMeld

Purchase Price: $125 million

The San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant took a deeper dive into artificial intelligence this year with its acquisition of MindMeld for $125 million. MindMeld is a San Francisco-based AI startup that spent three years developing its MindMeld platform, making it possible for companies to create intelligent conversational interfaces for any application or device. Cisco said it will leverage MindMeld technology to "bring voice AI to meeting rooms" – specifically into its Cisco Spark unified communications and collaboration portfolio.

"The workplace of the future is one powered by AI," said Rowan Trollope, senior vice president of Cisco's IoT and Applications Group. "This is a significant step toward making that workplace a reality. Integrating MindMeld into the Cisco Spark platform will transform how users interact in Cisco Spark Spaces, Cisco Spark Meetings and Cisco Spark Care."