Cisco/EMC: The Next Big Deal?

Could a marriage between Cisco and EMC be in the works? It's just an interesting idea -- there is no juicy rumor or speculation

swirling around the industry -- but Yahoo!'s tech ticker is offering up the possibility as perhaps the next big deal in IT. It seems to make a lot of sense...

It's no secret that Cisco wants to be more of an IT player than just a provider of network infrastructure to the data center. Its $150 million stake in virtualization software developer VMware underscores that. Cisco is also a leading supplier of storage area network switches to enterprises.

EMC is the leading pure storage vendor for enterprise data centers. And EMC owns 86% of VMware, worth about $22 billion.

Yahoo! values a possible deal at $45 billion. Cisco has at least half of that in cash. After what looks like a successful digestion of Scientific-Atlanta -- and with stock prices as low as they are -- it might be time for Cisco to reel in a really big fish.

More from Cisco Subnet:

Cisco shows off 8G blades for Fibre ChanneWhat's the full cost of Cisco TelePresence?lEnterasys/Extreme Networks merger is rumored First rootkit for IOS createdFBI worried over counterfeit Cisco gear Wendell Odom: Build a CCNP home lab

Go to Cisco Subnet for more Cisco news, blogs, discussion forums, security alerts, book giveaways, and more.

20 useful sites for Cisco networking professionalsThis month's Cisco Subnet giveaways Network World's IT Buyer's Guide: Cisco products Subscribe to Network World's Cisco Alert, which includes a weekly digest of all Cisco Subnet items