Cisco's new takeover strategy

Cisco was front and center Page 1 news today in the Wall Street Journal, which documents the company's new approach to acquisitions. In a nutshell, the company famous for growth and innovation via buyouts even moreso than for what goes on its own labs , has been buying bigger companies than it used to and is less aggressive about smushing them in with the rest of Cisco. For one reason, companies like Scientific-Atlanta specialized in areas that Cisco didn't already have a market in -- so there wasn't really any place to fold the acquired company into.

The WSJ piece gives a good behind-the-scenes look at Cisco's 2007 buyout of security company IronPort , which has managed to stand somewhat on its own even after getting snapped up. In fact, its CEO Scott Weiss is now heading up Cisco's security business. And despite fears IronPort employees might have had about layoffs and big changes, the story points out that the company's headcount has actually jumped from 400 to 700 since Cisco bought out IronPort for $830 million.

Cisco has been relatively quiet on the buyout front this year, though did earlier this month announce plans to buy out the rest of Nuova , a switch company already 80% owned by Cisco and started by ex-Cisco execs. 

We'd be curious to hear your stories about getting gobbled up by Cisco and what your experiences have been in dealing with companies before and after Cisco bought them.