Cisco Systems Passes $500 Billion in Market Value, a Silicon Valley First
By Scott Lanman
Cisco Passes $500 Bln in Market Value, First in Silicon Valley
San Jose, California, March 22 (Bloomberg) -- Cisco Systems
Inc., the No. 1 maker of computer-networking equipment, passed
$500 billion in market value, becoming the first Silicon Valley
company to reach the milestone.
Shares of Cisco rose 3 33/64 to a record close of 144 3/8,
giving the San Jose, California-based company a market value of
$500.8 billion. It's second worldwide to Microsoft Corp.'s $537.4
billion. Cisco shares have climbed 35 percent this year and have
almost tripled in the last 12 months.
Cisco, whose routers and switches direct data traffic across
most of the Internet and corporate computer networks, has gained
on optimism that it will keep benefiting from surging demand for
Internet services. The milestone comes after 15-year-old Cisco,
whose profit and revenue have almost never disappointed investors,
passed $300 billion on Nov. 23 and $400 billion on Feb. 1.
So far, Cisco has fended off competition from North America's
two largest phone-equipment makers, Lucent Technologies Inc. and
Nortel Networks Corp., each of which bought one of Cisco's biggest
rivals in the last two years. It's left smaller competitors like
3Com Corp. and Cabletron Systems Inc., which haven't been
acquired, in the dust.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, the No. 1 software
maker, rose 1/2 to 103 1/4. Its shares have fallen 12 percent this
year.
Two companies are close to Cisco in market value: General
Electric Co., the 108-year-old provider of jet engines, financial
services and television programs, and Intel Corp., the world's
largest chipmaker.
GE shares fell 9/16 to 150 7/8 on the New York Stock Exchange
to give the company a market value of $497 billion, while Intel
rose 5 5/8 to a record close of 144 1/16 for a market value of
$481.3 billion.
Cisco is splitting its stock 2-for-1 today. The company had
3.469 billion shares outstanding as of Feb. 25.
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