Cisco to discontinue optical router amid weak sales
SAN JOSE, Calif., April 4 (Reuters) - Cisco Systems Inc.(NasdaqNM:CSCO - news), the No. 1 maker of gear that helps to power the Internet, said on Wednesday that slow sales of an optical router had prompted it to discontinue making that device found at the core of optical networks.
Cisco, of San Jose, Calif., said it will stop making the 15900 Wavelength Router, a product that came out of its acquisition of Monterey Networks, in August 1999.
``Suffice it to say we thought the market would mature much faster than it has,'' Carl Russo, group vice president of optical networking, told Reuters. ``Given the current market conditions, we're going to focus our resources on things that are driving revenue for us.''
Specifically, Cisco now plans to redeploy the engineering talent working on the 15900 Wavelength Router into the so-called metropolitan optical market, which has been growing faster than the core of optical networks. Cisco's acquisition of Cerent Corp. in August 1999 gave the company products sold into the metropolitan market.
Cisco, known for its blistering sales growth and ravenous appetite for buying companies, has also been hit by the slowdown in the U.S. economy. It has announced layoffs and warned that its third-quarter sales will fall about 5 percent from the second, a first for Cisco since it went public in 1991. |
