Optical networking company Acacia Communications today said it terminated its $2.6 billion merger with Cisco because the two companies still haven’t received regulatory approval from China. However, in a separate statement, Cisco said it did receive Chinese approval, and said it’s seeking a court order to force Acacia to close the deal.

In the first of the two dueling statements, Acacia said the Chinese government’s State Administration for Market Regulation refused to approve the acquisition by the expected Jan. 8 end date. “As such, Acacia exercised its right to terminate the proposed transaction in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement,” the statement said.

However, Cisco said the Chinese government notified it on Jan. 7 that the planned acquisition is “sufficient to address the relevant competition concerns.” The networking vendor said it will ask the Delaware Court of Chancery to confirm that it met all the conditions for closing the transaction.

“Cisco is also seeking a court mandate that the agreement may not be terminated until the court resolves these matters, and an order from the court requiring Acacia to close the transaction,” the statement said.

Cisco originally announced plans to buy the small optical firm in July 2019, and at the time expected the deal to close by the end of the year. Optical systems play a key role in Cisco’s larger 5G strategy, and the deal would bring coherent optical interconnect in house — and likely increase the networking vendor’s clout with cloud and service provider customers.

However, the deal stalled after the Chinese government’s State Administration for Market Regulation refused to approve the acquisition. And in July 2020, the two companies said they remained “actively engaged” with China. At the time the United States, Germany, and Austria had already signed off on the deal.