Cisco (CSCO) would seem, at first blush, to be the last company that would get on the social networking bandwagon. Cisco is a router company. It sell to big telecom and big cable. Social networks are for Generation X users and sissies.
Well, Cisco has bought a small social networking company called Five Apart. It will allow businesses to create MySpace-like functions on their websites. Or, of course, the companies could just use MySpace (NWS).
According to The Associated Press, Five Apart "allows companies to add user-interaction functions and multimedia-sharing capabilities…."
The theory behind the purchase is that if Cisco licenses software that causes companies to use more bandwidth, its big pipe products like switches and routers will get better sales.
This must be the peak of the tech bubble. Sell everything.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
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