re: Sources: Cisco's Sales LightGiven Cisco's ridiculously overpriced gear, there is a strong chance that a smart, hyper-aggressive, price-cutter will emerge to put the kibosh on their obscene gross margins (70% as of last quarter). I hope it is Dell; I am sure it won't be 3Com - they are damaged goods. Huawei is too unethical a company to count for enterprise customers.
You don't have to take on Cisco on high/medium end routers - it is enough to destroy the margins on ethernet switches. Cisco's puffed up earnings will deflate the instant enterprises figure Cisco switches aren't worth the money.
For the record, I don't work for any current or prospective Cisco competitor.
re: Sources: Cisco's Sales LightGood Grief! Do I hear a sense of how do you say... Cisco Haters out there? Why? Because they are still profitable? Oh wait thats the key isn't it... THEY ARE STILL PROFITABLE! You want to bash Cisco you have every right. But here are some facts you may not understand. First off I know the Cerent Acquisition very VERY well. Yes they paid us 6.9B for a product that REVOLUTIONIZED Telecom! Oh please PLEASE someone discredit this? The 15454 Forever changed the SONET ADM marketplace! You do pay dollars for something that is new, and original. Now what has that meant to Cisco? Everyone say it with me now... Almost 4B in revenue since the Aquisition. Have they made money on their investment? NOPE, but guess what in just a few years they are 66% of the way there even in this Garbage economy. You talk about Dell Switches? Please! They don't hold a Candle to the robustness, scalability, and options available on ANY of the higher-end Catalyst line. You want to compare 6500 with another vendor? BRING IT! The box won't quit! With the new 720! Good GRIEF! The box is Terabit capable, and has been for many moons. Were not talking Slideware people were talking facts. And the infidel who said "Huawei is better product" are you nuts? Its a copied product! Enough said. Kick that company the hell out of the US and impose a Financial Penalty large enough to make them shrivel. I hear many bitter people with minimum fact. "Cisco Is over priced" "cisco provides no value" well guys, lets set the record straight... if they didn't they wouldn't be here now. Let me say that it is VERY possible for Cisco to turn into an IBM... Err what is IBMs valuation? Stock price is what $80?? yea that would be bad news ehh? Cisco can weather the storm with 18B in the Bank, they WILL be left picking up bargains. You call it whatever you like you hate them all you like "How Cisco is hated in San Jose" BS!!! Do you have ANY IDEA HOW MUCH REVENUE they pump into San Jose? The CITY OF SAN JOSE LOVES THEM! As does the State of California. So take that BS elsewhere please, your completely off-your-rocker. So as to other acquisitions of Cisco, well I don't know them intimately but let me ask you... what other company has had more successful acqs then Cisco? No One.
re: Sources: Cisco's Sales Light"A chinese company by the name Huawei poses considerable threat to Cisco' router business because Huawei's products are much superior and priced very reasonably.
Cisco has filed a fictitous law suite against Huawei as one of its employees/contractors copied some very simple code from Cisco's router code. The strange thing is that Cisco itself was involved in appropriating technologies from Lucent Technologies.
Meantime Procket, a start-up, has started marketing much powerful routers than Cisco. So Cisco has no where to go."
OK, Bobby, I hate to do it but I have to call "shananigans." Wow. I could have sworn you used to post intelligent and well written replies. What happened to that guy? Or, to out another conspiracy theory into play, has someone assumed Bobby's identity..... ;)
A couple of quick points.....
First, Huawei puts out crap. Albeit very cheap, it is crap compared to Cisco's gear. Just because a company can reverse engineer a box does mean they can write the code necessary to run it properly (they can steal it, as we have seen, but in the end it still does not perform as well). Writing code that works and scales is a difficult business. If it were easy, there would be 20 Cisco's out there. I truly think that Huawei is only a real threat in country's like China where politics has a great deal to do with the decision to purchase. Just a side note, no, I do not work for Cisco and I am actually not a big fan. The truth is the truth.
Second, relating to the ficticious law suit. That is absurd to even post. You only lose credibility by writing something like that. I think it is pretty clear that they are guilty of the charges. It doesn't really matter if an employee, or contractor as you write to somehow lessen the degree of guilt, copied the code or not. They broke the law and all but confessed to the infraction. You should read the story from last week. It is pretty clear. I am unaware of the Lucent vs. Cisco deal you mention. But, that is irrelevant. Lucent can take that up with Cisco.
Third, and lastly, Procket is indeed "Marketing" much more powerful routers than Cisco offers today. One could also put it as they are marketing much more powerful, unproven, over-hyped, and incredibly unknown routers (although I hear that will change in a week or two). One could also add that they are an incredibly small company that is pretty much incapable of actually supporting a large account (let alone several) that would put any a dent in Cisco's business. I hate to say it, but they are toast. I take nothing away from Tony Li. I am sure he is a brilliant man. But, one man does not a success make (especially in today's environment).
re: Sources: Cisco's Sales LightMr. John Chambers is a brilliant tactician, bought and grew when cheap now struggling to make it all have meaning, that is a true survivor..good luck as i am on a steamer to costa rica to relax...........
re: Sources: Cisco's Sales LightCisco certainly has their share of challenges but they are far and away the most successful networking company in history and their is more to be learned from their success than their problems. Yes they will come under attack from lower priced vendors but that is inevitable as the industry matures and Cisco can lower costs and move manufacturing to Asia too if they want to get ahead of the curve -- don't put it past them. Most ridiculous assertion is about Procket, the most overhyped company in this industry, which has a few very nice high density line cards and nothing else yet in terms of an account base and a proven deployed product. Their marketing claims sound like a grab bag from every other router company out there with minimal substance behind them...only ones hyping them are bankers desperate to get some kind of IPO or M&A business...
re: Sources: Cisco's Sales LightLight-bulb shone forth: Let me say that it is VERY possible for Cisco to turn into an IBM... Err what is IBMs valuation? Stock price is what $80?? yea that would be bad news ehh?
Puh-lease! Do you have any concept of what IBM is? Compare market caps from the hype days to today of Crisco and IBM. Crisco isn't anywhere close to stable, falling from $80 to $13.
For Crisco's P/E to match IBM, either its share price has to drop 20% or its earnings have to go up 20%. For Crisco's market cap to match IBM, its share price would have to go to $19, and then to match IBM in P/E, it would have to increase earnings by 75%. Rough numbers, but you get the idea. I know IBM, and Crisco, you ain't no IBM.
(IMO, this in no way implies IBM is a better place to work at, nor that crisco is worse - it's just a comparison of two different types of companies, stable value company vs. risky growth company).
re: Sources: Cisco's Sales LightDo believe I was doing a Direct 1-1? The discussion was rather... Could Cisco turn into an IBM. Not as in a direct comparison today. If your old enough to remember From 1991-1993 IBM wasn't fairing well at all. Do you remember what happened? The $12/share? All I was saying is if Cisco Followed IBM... Market Dominance, Market loser, to go on to Strong Market Leader and incredible Service Revenue... well it wouldn't be so bad.
re: Sources: Cisco's Sales LightYeah, Lightbulb, good analogy: Cisco and IBM. I personally think IBM is the best run technology company on the planet, and the best positioned with its strong blend of technology (micro-e all the way to services). So a good model for Cisco to try and achieve. But remember, IBM had to change horses twice to get where they are today.
Chambers is the greatest CEO in history from $1-20B. But can Cisco ride him to $80B? Not with the yes men he's got running the place right now. You need a Gerstner to come in, kick out all the cronies and hold people accountable, and you need better vision than "What do we do when we won't take development risks and we forgot how to buy the Crescendos of the world? I know, rather than build interesting products, let's improve our EPS every quarter and screw our employees and shareholders, not to mention customers, in the process."
The Cisco business model is flawed, Lightbulb. You have to see it. When your koolaid hangover wears off, tell us whether you think Cisco in its current form can ever really grow again. The channels can't wait for an alternative and neither can the customers. And meanwhile, everyone I know there is bored and uninspired. Feels like Rome must have felt around 400 A.D. when the barbarians came calling for the third time. The generals are fat, dumb and happy. The Visigoths and Huns are Juniper, Foundry, and Symbol, they're pounding at the gates and the emporer is asleep.
re: Sources: Cisco's Sales Lightwilecoyote does it again with uncanny timing!
2 days before the Andiamo annoucements wilecoyote holds forth: "Cisco cannot spell Fiber Channel, Brocade has nothing to fear". Of course Cisco showed just two days later that they not just know a thing or two about Fiber Channel but can up the ante with their very first short at it.
Recently wileC has been ranting on and on about the fall of Cisco and the rise of new powers like Juniper, Foundry, Force10 etc. Of course soon thereafter Cisco makes announcements which suddenly make the likes of Force10 look like candidates for the list of "Startups that never lived up to their huge hype".
There's lots more such nuggets of brilliantly timed proclamations from Mr wileC.
Sad to see folks still living in the bubble (and yet funny).
And Andiamo's revenues would be....I mean the customers you didn't have to buy off....nothing. A year later, Cisco still doesn't have meaningful storage revenues. Show me the money!
And dude, if you think this re-packaged 65K will kill off Foundry and Force10, I'm smiling and you're the funny guy.
You don't have to take on Cisco on high/medium end routers - it is enough to destroy the margins on ethernet switches. Cisco's puffed up earnings will deflate the instant enterprises figure Cisco switches aren't worth the money.
For the record, I don't work for any current or prospective Cisco competitor.