Cisco Acquisition Of The Week

Communications Today, July 10, 2000

Cisco Systems [CSCO] on Friday said it will shell out $210 million in common stock to buy San Jose-based Netiverse, which develops content- acceleration technology. Cisco already owns 20 percent of Netiverse.

According to Cisco execs, Netiverse technology will be integrated across Cisco's product line. The deal is another sign that major networking-gear makers see content as critical to their futures.

In May, Cisco spent $5.7 billion for Acton, Mass.-based Internet switch maker ArrowPoint Communications [ARPT]. ArrowPoint makes load-balancing Web- content switches.

Cisco leads the market in wide area network routers but is behind in wide area network multi-service switches to Lucent [LU], and Nortel [NT], according to a recent report by the Dell'Oro Group. Cisco has been devouring a new company, on the average, about every two weeks. That's why this piece is a brief; it's hardly news any more.

Paul Coe Clark III