Note reference to ASND in this Chambers interview.
Cisco CEO Not Intimidated By Rivals
(10/02/98 7:20 a.m. ET)
By Al Senia and Tim Long, Computer Reseller News
Cisco president and CEO John Chambers said he is not
intimidated by networking telecommunications rivals
Lucent and Nortel Networks.
In an interview with CRN Thursday -- the day Lucent's
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission-imposed
pooling restriction was lifted, which means the company is
free to pursue mergers and acquisitions -- Chambers said
Lucent and Nortel have misjudged the difficulties of the
market.
"I think they're underestimating the challenges,"
Chambers said.
"We have a culture [that has] an unusual balance of
confidence that we can take on the biggest players of the
world," he said. "And this isn't the first time we've done
this. So to think we would underestimate or, secondly, not
be able to execute effectively vs. a Lucent or a Nortel is
not giving us credit for our skill sets."
Chambers added the conventional wisdom that says
telecom companies can succeed in the data-networking
market by acquisitions is wrong. "Most [acquisitions] fail in
our industry," Chambers said, citing a long list of examples,
including 3Com, Cabletron, and Newbridge Networks.
"The most successful [acquisition] was Ascend Cascade,"
he said, "yet they grew only 5 percent revenue the next
year."
Chambers also said San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco
(company profile) is well-positioned technologically for
the upcoming battle over customers, because the tide of
convergence in the networking industry is "video and voice
underneath the data infrastructure, which plays hugely to
our advantage."
After his interview with CRN, Chambers outlined an
aggressive Internet vision for approximately 400 enterprise
executives at the Mission Critical Computing conference.
"Getting everything connected will be the future,"
Chambers told the executives. "In short, it's going to
change everything about our society. Are you ready?"
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