Gary,
Have you every been in the same room as John Chambers? I have.
On the other hand I agree that he is pretty smart. He knows what he knows, and knows what will work together in most cases. He is very specific about cultural fit in acquisitions and size fit, too. He does not believe in a merger of equals and said so strongly about COMS and USR. He also does not believe in cross country mergers, and spoke poorly of the Cascade deal as being too far away for ASND to handle.
I also think he could sell ice to Eskimos! He is foremost a salesperson.
So both from a size fit and a cultural fit I think John would strike an Ascend deal from his thinking. Culturally CSCO is a sales organization. ASND, being run by an engineer, is more technically oriented. Cascade brought the "quality is job one" to ASND, and that too is a different cultural then CSCO, IMHO. From a cross country prespective, well, that is only 1 out of 3 in the box that might fit.
But when you are in a room with John he is clearly the center of attention. Some might call that arrogance. On a personal level I like the man and respect what he has done and is doing. On an investing level my money is elsewhere, because, IMHO, CSCO can't double in a year like ASND has so far this year, or RDRT might by Christmas.
IMHO, Dennis |
