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To: Saturn V who wrote (173680)	3/19/2003 9:12:49 PM
From: Jim McMannis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

RE:"The US invasion of an Arab country will incite a lot more people. The number of volunteers for Al Qaida will increase dramatically. Luckily for US, Al Qaida is crippled right and will not be able to train the new recruits now. However in a few years the number of terrorist attacks will increase dramatically." Like I said, GWB has the opportunity to clean this up. This includes sitting heavy on the Israel-Palestine problem and establishing more democracies in the region...then backing off and actually protecting our borders. This includes those who would move here and still be aligned to some foreign power. OTOH, I think their will always be anti-US factions. These however can be reduced.

To: Saturn V who wrote (173680)	3/20/2003 12:12:01 PM
From: The Duke of URL©	Respond to of 186894

There goes the neighborhood: Cisco Acquiring Linksys Group for $500M 20 Mar 2003, 11:47am ET E-mail or Print this story - - - - - SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Jumping into the burgeoning wired and wireless home networking market, Cisco Systems Inc. said Thursday it was buying The Linksys Group Inc. for $500 million in stock in a deal that would make it the leader in that segment of the industry. Cisco already dominates the network equipment market for companies and service providers, with a business that still draws high profits despite a sales slump that has hammered all gear manufacturers over the past two years. But with Linksys, Cisco will enter an even dicier environment in which profit margins are slim and prices constantly driven downward by stiff competition from rivals including Microsoft Corp., Netgear, D-Link and Intel Corp. Still, Cisco executives believe the growing adoption of consumer high-speed Internet connections as well as increasing prevalence of more than one computer at homes will drive demand for reliable networking equipment for the home. "Home networking is quickly becoming a mass market," said Charlie Giancarlo, Cisco's senior vice president of corporate development "This is the right time and the right way to enter it." Linksys, based in Irvine, Calif., has one of the most extensive lines of routers and other equipment used in home networks. It currently markets 70 devices, which are sold to consumers at retail stores and online. Privately held Linksys had sales of $429 million last year, a 24 percent growth rate over 2001. The Irvine, Calif.-based company has been on Inc. magazine's list of the fastest growing private companies in the United States for five consecutive years. Linksys will be operated as a division of Cisco and the brand will be continued. Founded in 1988, it has 308 employees. Cisco said there are no plans to cut the work force. A Linksys spokeswoman did not immediately return calls seeking comment. The home networking market shows signs of taking off further, analysts said. Networking equipment sales to small and home offices are expected to grow from $3.7 billion in 2002 to $7.5 billion in 2006, according to data compiled by the Dell'Oro Group, Synergy. Wireless access in particular has been the recent focus of a number of companies, with Intel recently launching chip sets developed specifically for mobile, untethered computing. Wireless hotspots also are popping up at airports, coffee shops and bookstores as well as homes. "Fueled by consumer broadband adoption, the home networking space has experienced mass market acceptance," John Chambers, Cisco's chief executive, said in a statement. Though Chambers has been a vocal supporter of consumer broadband and has criticized delays in the rollout, Cisco has offered few products geared for the home. Cisco's routers and switches are commonly found in the back rooms of large corporations and government agencies. Several years ago, Cisco entered and exited the cable modem and Digital Subscriber Line home equipment markets. Executives said the commodity business did not fit with Cisco's strategy of finding market-leading positions in high-growth markets. "We learned through that entire process was that it was not a question of product but of business models," Giancarlo said. Cisco said the acquisition, which has been approved by both companies' boards, will dilute its fiscal 2004 earnings by no more than a penny per share and will add a cent to its per-share pro forma earnings. The deal, which is scheduled to close in Cisco's fiscal fourth quarter, also is subject to approval by antitrust regulators. Cisco considered developing home networking products in house, but ultimately decided it would be more effective to acquire a company already in the business, Giancarlo said. The strategy has served Cisco well over the years. Between 1993 and December 2000, it acquired 71 companies before the tech slump battered Cisco's stock price. Shares of Cisco fell 23 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $14 in morning trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market