Cisco and Acacia Communications will move forward with their merger after all — but it will cost about $2 billion more than the original price. The two companies today said they amended their acquisition agreement, and Cisco will now buy Acacia for $4.5 billion. Under the original 2019 deal, Cisco planned to pay $2.6 billion for the optics vendor.

Cisco and Acacia expect the acquisition to close by the end of the first quarter, though it still needs Acacia shareholder approval.

Under the agreement, Acacia CEO Raj Shanmugaraj and its employees will join Cisco’s Optics business.

“I am delighted that Cisco and Acacia have decided to come together in this mutual deal,” Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said.

But the deal almost didn’t happen.

Cisco originally announced plans to acquire the small optical firm in July 2019, and at the time expected the deal to close by the end of that year. However, the deal stalled after the Chinese government’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) refused to approve the acquisition.

Late last week, Acacia said it terminated the acquisition because China didn’t greenlight it by Jan. 8. Cisco, however, said it did receive Chinese approval on Jan. 7, and filed a lawsuit to force Acacia to close the deal. On Monday, Acacia filed a countersuit.

Bringing Acacia's coherent optical technology in house plays a critical role in Cisco’s Internet for the Future strategy and its plans to move deeper into the 5G infrastructure market.

“We look forward to welcoming Raj and the Acacia team to Cisco to offer our customers world-class coherent optical solutions to power the Internet for the future,” Robbins said.