Cisco was urged yet again this week to raise its $3 billion bid for Tandberg. As IDG News Service's Steve Lawson reports, the company was addressed in an open letter urging a hike in the price: Read more
Posted by Cisco Subnet editor Julie Bort: We are tickled to announce the winners of our October giveaways. The grand prize from Cisco Subnet of a free training course from Global Knowledge goes to David Kotlerewsky (pictured), systems engineer for InterVision Systems Technologies Inc. David thinks he'll use his free training for a class that will get him closer to his CCIE. Read more
Cisco has closed the old Cerent headquarters in Petaluma, CA, effectively ceasing operations in that area. Cisco paid $6.9 billion for Cerent in 1999 -- Cisco's largest acquisition ever at the time -- to obtain its multiservice SONET/SDH optical transport platform, which Cisco calls the ONS 15454. Read more
Cisco executives this week expressed optimism that it will close the deal with videoconferencing leader Tandberg. Cisco's $3 billion offer is facing resistance from a block of shareholders owning 24% of the company, and now OppenheimerFunds, which represents accounts holding another 6%. Read more
Even the bullish forecasts for Cisco's Q1 fell far short. Cisco this week posted first quarter results that far exceeded Wall Street, and its own, expectations.
Sales for the first quarter ended Oct. 24, 2009, were $9 billion. Analysts queried by Thomson Reuters were expecting $8.74 billion in revenue. Likewise, earnings for the quarter came in $.05 better per share on a non-GAAP basis than expected. Non-GAAP earnings per share were $.36 vs. Street estimates of $.31. Read more
The joint venture everyone's been waiting for for the past couple of months has finally arrived. Cisco and EMC have formed a joint venture to "accelerate" the products it develops under it new Virtual Computing Environment coalition with VMware. Read more
Investment firm UBS expects Cisco to report "strong" results for its fiscal 2010 first quarter on Nov. 4. UBS cites improved spending in US enterprise, strong federal government sales, and a "modestly improving" carrier capital spending environment. Read more
John McCool, Cisco's senior vice president and general manager for the Data Center Switching and Services Group, recently spent some time with Network World to discuss recent trends and market drivers in data center networking. The full interview can be found here, but some of the salient points he discussed were: Read more
Juniper this week stepped up its battle with Cisco on multiple fronts with a sweeping technology and partnership announcement in New York. The event was hosted by the New York Stock Exchange, Juniper's highest profile enterprise account for its high-performance networking thrust. Read more
Bloomberg.com is reporting that Cisco is considering dropping its $3 billion bid for videoconferencing leader Tandberg in the face of resistance from a block of shareholders holding 24% of the Norwegian company. The resisting shareholders moved to block the transaction based on its current terms on Oct. 15. Read more
A law firm in Pennsylvania is looking into whether Starent Networks is shirking its fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders by accepting Cisco's $2.9 billion acquisition offer. Cisco announced its intention to acquire Starent, which specializes in gateways to the enhanced packet core of 4G wireless networks, earlier this month. Read more
Oh, what a tangled web we weave. The server, storage and networking vendor partnerships and cross-pollination expanded again this week with word that Dell and Juniper will be teaming up for data center requirements. Read more
Cisco this week moved to provide SaaS-based Web security services by snapping up ScanSafe for $183 million. The ScanSafe acquisition will now allow Cisco to offer hosted and on premises Web security through its IronPort purchase of a few years ago. Read more
Extreme Networks last week bid adieu to its CEO and 9% of its workforce -- or about 70 people -- before announcing today that its first quarter fell far short of expectations. It begs the question of whether Extreme, with a flat 1.5% revenue share of the $19 billion Ethernet switching market for the past two years, can continue to survive at this pace. Read more
Cisco's recent $2.9 billion acquisition of enhanced mobile packet core specialist Starent Networks was said by pundits to have harmed Juniper's prospects in this market. Many said Juniper and Starent were getting closer, particularly in AT&T's parlour, and the Juniper was to announce its affections for the company next week in New York. Read more
Juniper says we're in a recovery -- its Q3 results affirm that, having come in nicely above Wall Street expectations. Cisco's Q1, which it reports Nov. 4, is also forecast to be better than initally thought. Read more
Juniper will have a new look shortly and some significant new products, as it looks to spiff up its armor for the battle with Cisco into the 2010 decade. According to this Forbes post, the company's big announcement in New York next week will include a new logo, software, silicon and routers. Read more
Cisco this week rolled out the second generation of its ISR branch router, which has become a $10 billion installed base for Cisco since its debut in 2004. Cisco's sold 7 million units since then to help solidify its 84% share of the access router market. Read more
Open-source networker Vyatta is once again offering discounts to customers based on Cisco's make up margin -- the percentage by which Cisco's profit falls short of 100%. Since Cisco's profit margin is usually in the mid-60s, Vyatta slashes the price of its appliances and subscriptions in the mid-30s. Read more
Oppenheimer & Co. is raising its estimates for Cisco's Q1, citing bullish statements from the channel. The firm found after conducting 40 interviews in the U.S. and Europe that Cisco's sales are tracking ahead of expectations, thanks to a resumption in spending and upgrade activity.
Sixty-five percent of those 40 respondents believe Cisco's sales will grow sequentially in Q1. Forty-three percent expect 1%-5% growth and another 23% expect 5%+ growth, according to Oppenheimer. Read more
The Cisco Subnet blog is written by Network World managing editor Jim Duffy and is the official blog of Network World's Cisco Subnet community. The Cisco Subnet site is managed by Online Community Editor Julie Bort. Cisco Subnet is the independent voice of Cisco customers and is your gateway to daily Cisco news, blogs, opinion, books, prize giveaways and more. Visit the Cisco Subnet home page daily and while you are there, subscribe to the Cisco Alert e-mail newsletter, which includes news and views generated by the Cisco Subnet community as well as Cisco-related stories on Network World and elsewhere on the Web.
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