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Technology Stocks : Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mighty Mizzou who wrote (26413)	6/18/1999 6:51:00 PM
From: Adam Nash	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77400

$400M might be chump change next to the opportunity inherent in having that switch under the Cisco name. If you don't think, all things being equal, that people wouldn't buy a product from Cisco rather than any other equipment vendor, then you don't really appreciate Cisco's current market power. - Adam

To: Mighty Mizzou who wrote (26413)	6/19/1999 3:38:00 PM
From: ioioioi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77400

Hmm, The toughest problem being faced by all silicon valley companies today: 1. Not enough talanted employees. 2. Too many open req's - too few bodies to fill them. Come on, if you can look a little deeper, Cisco is not buying superior technology alone. Its buying superior talent and good technology, which it can leverage with its better marketing and sales muscle. The attrition rate at Cisco (for acquired companies) is looooooooow! So, if you had a choice to spend X amount of money and get good talent, spend another Y to train them and get the chemistry working right, OR Just pay Z (less than X+Y) to buy the same talent without the headache of either training them or getting them to work together, WHICH would you prefer. There's more to these acquisitions than meets the eye. Some of them will fail no doubt, but getting a Mario Mazzola or a Judith Estrin is worth paying 10 times a premium for a "SINGLE SWITCH" as you put it.

To: Mighty Mizzou who wrote (26413)	6/20/1999 12:38:00 PM
From: The Phoenix	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77400

MM, You might want to take a look closer at Transmedia. (I assume that's who you're referring to). Transmedia provides the convergence/integration point (read gateway) from classic old world networks to new world IP networks. This is the very area you said CSCO was weak in a few day's ago. IF this market is a multi-billion dollar market as everyone says (including LU) it would seem that a $407M acquisition is mice-nuts compared to the return. Cisco is very quickly building the requisite telephony experience to create the beachhead required to penetrate the circuit switched market. With partnerships like that with QWST, CSCO will put more and more pressure on the traditional carriers to move to more IP delivery of communications. LU will win some of these accounts and CSCO will win some. What's of note however is that these are accounts that were traditionally telephony accounts - accounts that CSCO didn't even hava a shot at last year.... now CSCO does. CSCO has taken the battle onto LU's turf and are growing their total available market. LU and ASND have done little to penetrate the enterprise...they say they don't want to because it's not a growth market. This is a mistake. It gives CSCO the foundation (unattacked revenue and earnings) from which to take the fight to LU. LU is now on the defensive and acquisitions like Transmedia are far more significant than buying a couple of Brazilian companies solely to get one long term contract in Brazil. That is short sighted move by LU, CSCO is investing for the future. OG