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Cisco to Layoff 6500 Employees

Mon, 2011-07-18 18:51

Cisco announced today that it will be laying off 6,500 employees as part of the "comprehensive action plan" to rightsize the company. 

According to the press release, this includes 2,100 employees who chose to participate in an early retirement program. This includes a reduction of 15 percent of their VP and higher executive level employees. 

This process will cost Cisco about $1.3 Billion USD in severance fees and other payments. Hopefully for shareholders it will yield some cost savings and help the company make a turn in the right direction. 

In addition to the 6,500 employees, a set-top box manufacturing plant in Mexico will be sold to Foxconn Technology Group (the same group that makes iPhones and other electronics). This equates to 5,000 additional employees being shed from Cisco's payroll (and shifted to Foxconn's payroll) effective FQ1 2012.

Cisco Sued for Helping Build China's Great Firewall

Mon, 2011-05-23 18:04

According to reports all over the place, Cisco has been slapped with a lawsuit for allegedly helping China build a security system that has lead to the torture, and in one case death, of the members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement. 

The firewall system named the Golden Shield gives China's government the power to identify, track, and monitor those who are opposed to Chinese government. The suite contends that the information provided by the Golden Shield lead to the arrest of several members of the Falun Gong group who were tortured, one beaten to death. 

Symantec to Acquire Clearwell Systems

Mon, 2011-05-23 06:51

You may have heard Symantec has announced its intention to acquire Clearwell Systems, Inc., a leader in the eDiscovery market. What exactly does that mean? Well, in the age of information when knowledge is capital, large organizations stand to gain from managing their information well. If a company stays on top of their information management, they will lessen the risk of data loss to competitors and are more likely to be in compliance with regulators. 

Clearwell is the recognized leader in the eDiscovery market. Add those strengths to Symantec with their data archiving and backup expertise and you have a potential information management power house. 

Microsft Buys Skype for 8.5 Billion

Tue, 2011-05-10 06:55

Microsoft today has announced their intention to buy Skype Global, the wonderful application that allows for people around the world to communicate with each other for free. The deal will set Microsoft back eight and one half billion US dollars, in cash. Not exactly pocket change for most companies, but our Redmond friends seem to have access to Scrooge's money bin. 

According to the press release, this will be the third time in less than a decade that Skype has been sold. First to eBay in 2005, who then sold it to the investment group Silver Lake in 2009. Now Microsoft is throwing their hat in the ring. 

Cisco Shutting Down Flip Camera Business

Tue, 2011-04-12 22:50

Cisco announced today that it will be restructuring its consumer business segment. Part of the fall out of this move is the destruction of the Cisco Flip, previously discussed on Tekcert earlier this year. Not much of a surprise since most smart phones have HD cameras built-in and that market has been exploding over the past few years. Who wants to carry around multiple devices anyway?

Juniper Acquires Altor Networks

Mon, 2010-12-06 14:04

Juniper announced today that they have acquired Altor Networks, a premiere provider of virtual security products.This is yet another addition to the acquisitions Juniper has made this year.

Juniper is Jumping in to the mix

Wed, 2010-11-17 07:55

Juniper announced yesterday that they will be closing the deal with Belden to acquire Trapeze Networks, a Belden brand of wireless products. This fills a gaping hole in Juniper's product offering since they have just about everything else to offer in the enterprise space. With the acquisition Juniper will have a ton of patents on wireless technologies and a decent offering of WLAN controllers, Access Points, and Wireless management systems. 

HP Makes More Than Printers?

Tue, 2010-09-28 19:29
inkjet_printer.jpg

Whenever I think of HP, my thirst thought is a junky old inkjet printer that I still have taking up space in my office. I haven't used it since I bought a newer Xerox Phaser 6130 Color Laser (which is awesome). That's not really a fair representation of HP though, since they sell a wide range of enterprise grade products including servers (thank you Compaq) and network gear (thank you 3COM). 

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