This will be Cisco's biggest deal after its acquisition of Norwegian conferencing company Tandberg for $3.3 billion in 2009.

NDS is 51 percent-owned by private equity fund Permira. PERM.UL The rest is held by News Corp (NWSA.O).

Reuters reported on July 13 that the deal would be cleared by the European Commission without any conditions.

The European Commission said the deal would not raise competition concerns.

"The Commission's investigation confirmed that the merged entity would continue to face competition from a number of strong competitors and that customers, namely pay-TV providers, would continue to have alternative suppliers in all markets concerned," the EU watchdog said in a statement.

NDS' other users include BSkyB (BSY.L) and Sky Italia in Europe, and Cablevision Systems Corp (CVC.N), Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) and Rogers Communications Inc. (RCIb.TO) in North America.

NDS' software allows cable and satellite TV companies to deliver encrypted content through televisions and other devices. Cisco's core business is routers and switches that manage Internet traffic.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Barbara Lewis)

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