It’s pretty amusing to watch Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems come to grips with what amounts to a Data Center Death Match. Last week, HP declined to comment for my story on Cisco’s upcoming virtualization server, which will thrust Cisco into the server market for the first time.
Cisco CEO John Chambers just might be one the most careful executives in the Valley about talking to the press; in a brief chat with Tech Trader Daily at a media reception last night, he didn’t give away much about his views on the state of the economy or the current quarter. But he did have a few things to say. Here’s a summary.
Cisco has decided to be a player in the consumer electronics business.
Cisco is a company that tends to be associated with enterprise networking–at its heart it remains a manufacturer of big honking routers. But over the last few years, the company has made a concerted effort to get into the consumer business.
Even as economic losses and unemployment levels mount, America’s most effective engine for wealth and job creation is being dangerously–perhaps fatally–compromised.
Cisco, true to its word, began reducing its headcount this week. Drastically. Aaron Rakers, an analyst at Wachovia Capital Markets, noticed that the total number of the company’s job listings has fallen 93 percent in the last week. Rakers isn’t specific about how many of those jobs are in Silicon Valley, but job-listing businesses advertising on the radio in the Bay Area may want to change their recession-defying promises of “thousands of job openings” to “thousands of applicants.”
There are plenty of questions about the results Cisco will report on its earnings call tomorrow, and the guidance it’ll provide moving forward. The Street expects weakness on both counts. No prediction yet on what to expect if CEO John Chambers is Treasury Secretary by then.
Goldman Sachs has updated its three “Technology Framework Lists,” which include its top five growth picks, its top five tech value plays, and–sadly–its five least favorite tech names.
Apparently Judy Estrin, a well-known Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur and exec, is coming out with a new book warning that the infrastructure needed for innovation in Silicon Valley is going away. The complaint basically appears to be that there’s too much emphasis on the short-term, with companies focusing on the quick flip rather than the [...]
Cisco Systems today announced a deal to acquire privately held PostPath, a Mountain View-based provider of Linux-based e-mail and calendaring software, for $215 million. Cisco said the deal will extend the email and calendar functions of its Webex Connect collaboration platform.
Technology entrepreneur Judy Estrin is worried about the future of technology and innovation in Silicon Valley and the rest of the country. Estrin, who served as Cisco Systems Inc.’s top technology executive during the dot com boom, has a new book coming out next month, “Closing the Innovation Gap,” that should be required reading for whoever takes over the Oval Office in January.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) CEO John Chambers said in an interview on CNBC that the company is not currently in any negotiations for a large acquisition, Reuters reports. The comment came in response to a question about whether the company might be in talks to acquire enterprise storage giant EMC (EMC).
Sustainability will influence the next generation of Internet technology, according to Chief Technology Officer Padmasree Warrior. At Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference Tuesday, Warrior talked with Strategic News Service’s Mark Anderson about information overload, mobile innovation, and major tech transitions ahead.
Let’s dive in a little more into the issues around Cisco’s disappointing guidance for its fiscal third quarter ending in April.
In a brief interview with Tech Trader Daily late this afternoon, I got a few more details on the situation from Ned Hooper, Cisco’s senior VP for corporate development and consumer and small business.
Cisco Systems shares are under pressure, ahead of the company’s Wednesday afternoon announcement of earnings for its fiscal second quarter ended January. The looming Cisco results are giving some investors the jitters, given what happened the last time they reported earnings: CEO John Chambers cautioned that the company was seeing a year-over-year decline in U.S. enterprise orders, and the broad stock market plunged.
While certainly investors will be watching for any sign of trouble in the January quarter results, the real issue is going to be what the company says about the rest of its fiscal year, which ends in July.
This is a section of the All Things Digital Web site featuring posts from around the Web, from other Dow Jones properties and also original pieces we solicit. The section is now explicitly labeled that it comes "from other Web sites."
We are fully aware of the controversies around how linking and aggregating is done on the Web and we, in no way, are attempting to "scrape" original content created by others. Instead, regarding third-party posts, we are trying to point readers of this site to other posts from around the Web that we admire and are trying to do so in the quickest manner possible.
The Internet is full of terrific content that is not ours and we want to help our readers find it by making editorial suggestions--Look, Mom, no algorithm!--of posts we think are worth their time.
That is why we have made even more changes to Voices to ensure we do this in the most transparent and timely way. While we don't expect that everyone will agree with our policies, we have made changes that reflect our intent in pointing to content outside our site.
So here is exactly what we do: Read more »
Because the site is wholly owned by Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, we aim to adhere to the journalistic standards of the best of the mainstream media. But, because it is run autonomously as a small online startup, we aim to exhibit the fresh thinking and nimbleness of the best of the new media. We want to be first, and sassy, but also well sourced and accurate. We will offer lots of opinion and analysis, but plenty of fact as well.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
Don't miss a post! Sign up for our Daily Email and get AllThingsD.com delivered each day.
Get columns, blogs and video from D and All Things Digital on your iPhone. Download now »
