Cisco Event Appears To Be No Stealth Re-Org Effort... "The Zettabyte Era" (CSCO)

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) was already expected to have “a major product announcement” this week based upon the news from last week.  Wall Street and Silicon Valley are interpreting this as one more step along the path of a reorganization as the behemoth struggles.  Now we have some additional details of what Cisco will be showing and this seems to be more of the next-generation Internet more than it does a reorganization effort from the company.

On Tuesday will be an online interactive media and industry analyst presentation for the company to make a major service provider technology announcement.  After the announcement will be a live roundtable discussion with technology and business leaders from major global service providers.  Analysts and media, likely on a selective basis, will get to ask questions in a question and answer session.

What appears to be coming out is how the company plans to work with partners and providers in the build-out of the next generation Internet.  Cisco even noted, “The Zettabyte Era.”

Pankaj Patel, head of Cisco’s Service Provider Business, will be paneling this with Comcast, Cox Communications, Fastweb of Italy, and Tata Communications of India.

Cisco has already unveiled equipment that can handle something to the tune of a billion videos.  This seems to be the furthering of that effort.  Unfortunately, it seemed as though some investors last week were expecting more restructuring efforts as the company aims to get back to a larger core-Cisco.

This does not sound at all like another move that will save Cisco from its missteps and missed opportunities. It also does not sound like anything that will suddenly halt the calls for John Chambers to begin his stepping-aside process.

Cisco shares closed at $16.00 on Friday and the 52-week trading range is $15.98 to $26.00.

JON C. OGG