I feel obligated to write about Cisco’s recent acquisition of Five Across. It is not only because I am still a loyal Cisco employee (in case my boss is reading ^_^), but also I believe the network giant’s move in the Web2.0 space may send an important signal to the industry and create a chain reaction.
During the last 16 years as the CEO of Cisco, John Chambers has won over even the harshest critics with his vision and business sense. Truly, in an industry that sees 90% its acquisitions go down in flames, Cisco enjoyed 70% success rate in the 120 deals it struck. Chambers has not exactly kept his ambition of attacking the consumer market a secret, as evidenced by the acquisition of Linksys and Scientific Atlanta. Nevertheless, Five Across is still a bold move; not even some of the senior VP’s I spoke to could elaborate on how it ties into Cisco’s business strategy. However, it’s understandable that social networking and the wider Web 2.0 phenomenon could boost Internet traffic that goes through Cisco’s routers and switches and that could bring in more revenue.
Why Five Across? The technology and the management team. Without experimenting with their product, I can just say that Five Across was founded in 2003, has 11 employees and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. More to come on Five Across…
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