Sunday, April 05, 2009

Cisco Gets Into Servers/Cameras

Well, this should be interesting. 

In recent weeks, Cisco said it will start selling servers, opening a new rivalry with longtime partners like Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Corp. Cisco also agreed to pay about $590 million in stock to pick up Pure Digital Technologies, which makes the popular Flip camcorders.

Cisco has not been spared by the recession. Its profit declined 27 percent in its last quarter, which ended in late January, and it reported flat earnings in the previous period. It is slashing more than $1 billion in expenses, partly by cutting back on travel and freezing hiring.

Yet it also has $29.5 billion in cash and investments, a solid reputation, a network of product resellers and thousands of sales employees — assets that the company hopes to exploit.

One challenge will be whether Cisco can maintain focus. By the company’s own count, it has 28 overall priorities, running the gamut from computer networks in space to “virtual health care.”

(3) Comments
Posted by Owen at 2059 hrs
Technology

  1. Interesting.  Most large orgs the guys that buy the servers and the guys that buy Cisco products aren’t even in the same building.

    But hey - we’ve got Sun hosts we cuss at, HP and Compaq hosts we cuss at - might as well add Cisco servers into the mix.

    Also - between the various Sun and HP platforms we’ve got about 37 different ways to handle out-of-band management.  I’m looking forward to yet one more.

    Posted by Brian Dunbar on April 05, 2009 at 2131 hrs


  2. I am not too sure about this move. In a time where not only is the hardware very commoditized (sp?), but organizations are actively going virtual machines and shrinking their server farms…I just don’t see the play. And the camcorder play, I don’t get that at all. I must be missing something.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 06, 2009 at 0828 hrs


  3. Maybe Cisco should offer $10/share to Sun and squeeze IBM out of that deal.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 06, 2009 at 1020 hrs


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