BURLINGAME, Calif. -- Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) may have curbed its hunger for new firms during these tumultuous times, but it is not done with acquisitions in the long term, according to Ammar Hanafi, the company’s vice president of corporate development.

Speaking at the NGN Ventures show here, Hanafi remarked that it would be "immoral and unethical" to acquire some firm at the same time Cisco was laying off other workers.

By this time last year, Cisco had acquired nine of the 23 firms it would buy in the year 2000. So far in 2001, Cisco has not added any new firms to its fold. Instead, it’s discontinued a heavily promoted product line and announced it will be cutting 8,500 jobs (see Cisco Kills Monterey Router and Cisco's Inventory Woes Mount).

"This is a very tough time for us at Cisco," Hanafi said. "But once we are through this, we always have and always will look to acquisitions as part of our strategy to get new technologies to the market and to our customers."

When conference host John McQuillan suggested that probably a lot of companies would soon be for sale, Hanafi said, "If they're still around, they'll be for sale."

"The important thing here is to know that we will always look at acquisitions," he added. "When we do, the decision to buy will come down to value and opportunity."

-- Phil Harvey, Senior Editor, Light Reading http://www.lightreading.com