Sometimes it’s hard to believe there’s anyone left for Cisco to acquire. Yet here we have Chief Development Officer Charles Giancarlo saying the company will likely make as many acquisitions this year as it did in 2006, when it made 10 deals. It has made six buys already this year including WebEx for $3.2 billion and 32 acquisitions since 2004.
Cisco is one company where nametags must be essential at every company meeting. “The temperature feels about the same,” Giancarlo said at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York, when asked to compare the network equipment maker’s acquisition spending this year with 2006
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In related but not surprising news Giancarlo said the company was working on developing new software and tools to create social networking sites. Cisco recently bought assets of Utah Street Networks, a social networking company founded in 2003. Cisco sees social networking as a key part of the way media companies and other enterprises will approach their customers, according to a recent IDG News Service story.
This month when Cisco released its financial results it said it plans to expand its software business in the next fiscal year, following on from its acquisition of WebEx and taking advantage of changes in the way business processes are delivered.
“Cisco is really a software company wrapped up in steel clothing,” with 65% of its engineers working on software, Giancarlo said. Cisco said they would target smaller services and had no intention to enter the consumer market. “We are not going to become a retail social networking site,” Giancarlo added, “Meaning, directly dealing with consumers on the Internet.”
