Cisco doesn't have eyes for RIM

 

Gallery

By Miya Knights

Posted on 26 Feb 2009 at 13:37

Cisco has ruled out going on an acquisition-spending spree to pad out its product line up anytime soon.

So says the company's leader John Chambers, who ruled out the possibility of any major or consumer technology led mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity while speaking yesterday at a US technology conference.

Many have interpreted his comments as a way of pouring cold water on rumours that Cisco is planning on making a bid for BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM).

Chambers told delegates at the at the Goldman Sachs 2009 US Technology and Internet Conference that Cisco quite simply had no current interest in consumer devices.

The company has historically had an appetite - and a bank balance - for acquisitions, having spent big bucks buying up the likes of web conferencing specialist WebEx and cable set-top box vendor Scientific Atlanta.

But of late, Cisco has been feeling the ill winds of the economy as much as the rest of us. With some 250 job cuts reported to be in the offing and a restructuring initiative underway aimed at reducing operating budget by $1 billion (£702 million) by the end of its 2009 fiscal year, Cisco's belt has already been somewhat tightened.

Chambers was quoted as saying that there would still be "multiple acquisitions" but he added that the majority of them would be small.

He said he was more optimistic than the general consensus that the downturn would last well into 2010. Instead, Chambers claimed he was expecting to see signs of recovery before the year is out.