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

To: John Chen who wrote (34698)	5/7/2000 12:32:00 PM
From: lawdog	Respond to of 77398

John, the FTC has investigated CSCO in the past, but no actions have been taken to date. It is likely that CSCO will be under greater anti-trust scrutiny in the future. But, CSCO neither directly deals with retail individual consumers (so it is less visible) nor is it as vilified as MSFT. Go Johnny Go Chambers is known as a compromiser, he has a reputation of going to great lengths to accomplish a sale. His reputation is basically the polar opposite to Gates, except for their similar perfectionist qualities. As long as this is true CSCO should be free of antitrust problems. In terms of valuation CSCO is caught between competitors like Juniper stealing market share and the threat of antitrust red tape if they maintain 80% market domination. Periods of antitrust litigation logically lead to lower share prices because your potential return becomes limited. These concerns will definitely be a drag on CSCOs future share price, even if the market allows CSCO to maintain a ridiculous degree of overvaluation. For more information see: Cisco Systems - The Dogfood Danger , The Economist April 8, 2000, pp. 64 to 66. "Even if Cisco were to dominate the network as Microsoft controls the PC , it would not enjoy that position for long. If, as Mr. Chambers says, the networked economy is all about speed and continuous change, any firm's dominance will also fade speedily. Cisco could be consumed by the very revolution its own technology has fostered. It may be time to look out for the next start-up that will become the biggest company in the world faster even than Cisco did. "