Here we go again.

Cisco Systems Inc.'s (Nasdaq: CSCO) acquisition of P-Cube Inc. does more than just validate the market for peer-to-peer traffic management appliances (see Cisco to Acquire P-Cube and Cisco Plucks P-Cube for $200M). It also validates Light Reading's Top Ten Private Companies List.

Yes, P-Cube will become the second company from the list to be acquired, since its last major update in May (see P-Cube). P-Cube replaced Telica Inc. in the List's No. 10 spot, after Telica announced in July that it was being acquired by Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU). (See Lucent Buys Softswitch Vendor Telica and P-Cube Tiptoes Into the Top Ten.)

[Ed. note: After watching two of our No. 10 picks hit liquidity in just a few months, we're aware of the joke potential about how the Top Ten List really works, just not in the way you'd expect. It's very Light Reading, no?]

Anyway, rather than drag another poor company kicking and screaming into the 10 spot, which is obviously charmed, Light Reading's editors have decided to rewrite the whole list and debut a fresh, clean one in mid-September.

Of course, sometimes our picks are off base. Sometimes yours are, too, as reflected in an interactive poll taken when P-Cube entered the Top Ten. Of the 79 poll respondents, 34.2 percent disagreed with the choice of P-Cube and 26.6 percent weren't sure.

Yes, sometimes our favorite armchair quarterbacks fumble the seven-layer dip of prognostication into the lap of telecom shame. But, no matter. We're still depending on you -- our steadfast, trend spotting readers -- to assist in making us aware of privately held telecom companies with remarkable technology that have a better-than-usual chance of getting acquired or going public within the next 12 months.

Please scratch your whiskers in thoughtful contemplation and send your nominations to [email protected], or post them on the message board below for all the world to see.

— Phil Harvey, News Editor, Light Reading