Cisco this morning announced that it has acquired San Francisco startup Versly, a privately-held company that develops collaboration tools that integrate with Microsoft Office applications.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but all Versly employees will be integrated into Cisco’s Collaboration Software Group (CSG) upon the close of the acquisition. → Read More
Cisco this morning announced its intent to purchase service fulfillment software assets and associated employees from the UK subsidiary of partner company Comptel, for 21.3 million euros or roughly $31 million in cash.
With the acquisition, Cisco hopes to extend network and service management technologies across its IP-based network platforms and enable service providers to more quickly launch new video, data, mobility and cloud services to their customers, using a single management architecture. → Read More
The Cisco Cius tablet is nearing release a full year after its announcement. The enterprise tablet is set to set the IT world a blaze this July 31 and Verizon will be one of the official retailers along with AT&T. The $750 tablet will hit Big Red sometime this summer; the press release didn’t confirm or even mention the July 31st date. Instead, the presser states that the tablet is coming late summer.
Still, the Cius tablet might become one of first tablets outside of the iPad to successfully infuriate the world of enterprise communication. Cisco knows their market probably better than anyone else and smartly choose to sell in the lucrative enterprise market rather than the cutthroat world of consumer gadgets. Presser after the break. Oh, and yeah, it’s a wild one complete with references to Moses and ill-fated attempts to make Verizon’s 4G LTE hotspots relevant to the Cius. → Read More
Loopinsight has an interview with HP’s developer relations guy, Richard Kerris, where he basically says that WebOS is HP’s enterprise strategy, not their consumer play. He says:
“We think there’s a better opportunity for us to go after the enterprise space and those consumers that use PCs,” said Kerris. “This market is in it’s infancy and there is plenty of room for both of us to grow.”
“We think the world of Apple and have the utmost respect for their products,” said Kerris. “It would be ignorant for us to say that we are going to take it [the market] away from Apple.”
A year ago today, we predicted that Cisco’s enterprise-focused 7-inch Cius tablet would never ship. It was a reasonable prediction at the time, but it turns out we were wrong. In fact, the Cisco Cius tablet did ship in late March, barely making its promised release date of “Q1 2011.” Today, Cisco unveiled its latest product for Cius, the AppHQ application storefront, hoping to gain a little more traction with potential enterprise customers. → Read More
Remember a few months ago when you kind of cared about the Cisco Cius and then you realized it was just a little screen made for video meetings and wasn’t really a consumer device? Well, prepare for that realization again because AT&T is about to provide HSPA+ data service for this thing and presumably sell it to government and institutional buyers. → Read More
When people build startups, we measure their measure success not only by how big is their exit, but also by how many lives their products touch and how long their brands lasts in the minds of consumers. Cisco’s decision today to shutter its Flip Video business two years after paying $590 million for it raises a series of questions which startup founder/investor Chris Dixon and I address in the video above. Why didn’t Cisco sell the business? Was the tax write-off bigger than anything Flip could have fetched?
But namely, was it inevitable that Flip would have failed on its own because it got in the way of the iPhone, or could it have adapted if it stayed independent? There is no right answer here. Imagine if Netflix had been acquired early on by Blockbuster or some other lumbering giant—it would never be where it is today. On the other hand, Android is great example of a company that flourished because it was acquired by Google and given the resources to become the powerhouse that it is today. → Read More
At the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing today, Power Assure — a green IT business from Santa Clara, Calif. — revealed that its energy management software is now compatible with Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS) Blade servers.
According to Jed Scaramella, a research manager for servers at IDC, here’s how fast blade servers, in general, are gaining traction in the market:
In 2010, the server blade market in the U.S. was $2.7 billion, representing approximately 14 percent of the U.S. server market… [IDC] expects the blade segment to grow 19.8 percent in 2011 to $3.2 billion in the U.S – compared to the total U.S. server growth of 2.4 percent.
On a worldwide level, the blade market is expected to grow 22.4 percent in revenue over the next year to $7.3 billion, which is relative to total server worldwide revenue growth of 3.5 percent… → Read More
Wow. Cisco has just issued a release stating that in a strategic plan to “align its operations,” the company will exit parts of its consumer businesses and realign the remaining consumer business to support four of its five key company priorities: core routing, switching and services; collaboration; architectures; and video. One of the casualties of this realignment: Cisco’s video camera Flip business, which was part of its $590 million acquisition of Pure Digital.
As part of the plan, Cisco close down its Flip business and “support current FlipShare customers and partners with a transition plan.” Cisco will also refocus its Home Networking business and integrate Cisco umi into the company’s Business TelePresence product line. → Read More
Wow. Cisco has just issued a release stating that in a strategic plan to “align its operations,” the company will exit parts of its consumer businesses and realign the remaining consumer business to support four of its five key company priorities: core routing, switching and services; collaboration; architectures; and video. One of the casualties of this realignment: Cisco’s video camera Flip business, which was part of its $590 million acquisition of Pure Digital.
As part of the plan, Cisco will close down its Flip business and “support current FlipShare customers and partners with a transition plan.” Cisco will also refocus its Home Networking business and will integrate Cisco umi into the company’s Business TelePresence product line. As part of the transition, Cisco plans to eliminate 550 jobs. → Read More
In the world of high tech, routers and switches are the oft-ignored, older, awkward step-sisters of CE design. It is thus no longer. Cisco has just released a plethora of routers and switches, ranging from $60 to $160 on the wireless side and $29 to $74 on the switch side, that look like little alien racecars. The new models in the E-Series come with the standard junk – 10/100 Mbps wired ports and 300 Mbps wireless access – and a few even have a special virtual USB system that allows you to connect distant devices just as if they were on your local USB bus. Exciting stuff, to be sure. Most of this stuff is available now. Why not take one of these wallflowers for a spin? Product Page → Read More
Cisco this morning announced its intent to acquire newScale, a global provider of self-service and lifecycle management software for enterprise IT and private/hybrid cloud computing.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but newScale is a company that’s raised tens of millions of dollars in funding from a wide range of investors, according to CrunchBase.
Based in San Mateo, California, newScale develops products and solutions that enable companies to select and deploy cloud services within their businesses, allowing them to initiate the provisioning of their own systems and infrastructure on an as-needed basis. → Read More
ūmi, the high-powered and ridiculously expensive video chatting service from Cisco, is getting a bit of a price drop. We were initially impressed with the quality at the announcement, but the $600 price tag was too high, to say nothing of the ridiculous $25/month plan that used a connection you were already paying for.
Well, either Cisco wildly overestimated the price people would pay for this thing, or… no, that’s pretty much the only option. At any rate, the price is coming down and there’s a new “cheaper” version. → Read More
Every year, Fortune magazine (where I started out as a reporter) comes out with its list of the Most Admired Companies in the world. In truth, it doesn’t really change much from year to year. Apple, once again for the fourth year in a row, is No. 1, as it should be. The company single-handedly created an entirely new class of touch computing with the iPad last year, and is on it’s way to becoming the most valuable company in the world.
Google is No. 2 (although, confusingly, it’s overall score of 8.22 is higher than Apple’s 8.16—it turns out that those are their industry scores not their separate Top 50 scores, a spokesperson explains, even though they are labeled “overall scores”). And Amazon comes in at No. 7. Microsoft hangs on at No. 9. So four of the top 10 companies are from the technology industry. And IBM is No. 12. After that, the list becomes a mixed bag, and even a little questionable. Cisco, Intel, Netflix, eBay, Sony, and Oracle also made the list. Netflix totally deserves to be there and maybe Cisco, but the others just seem to grandfathered in. Where’s Yahoo? → Read More
Cisco this morning announced that it has completed its acquisition of privately-held Pari Networks, a provider of network configuration and change management solutions, in an effort to complement its own ‘smart service’ capabilities. Pari Networks, notably, was founded by a group of former Cisco executives.
Cisco originally announced its intent to buy Pari Networks on January 26, 2011. Financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed, but Pari Networks employees are to become part of Cisco’s Technical Services. → Read More
We’ve heard for a while now that Cisco plans to put out a Flip camera with wi-fi built in, but so far the rumors haven’t produced an actual product. Until now. → Read More
Cisco this morning said it intends to purchase LineSider Technologies, a privately-held network management software based out of Danvers, Massachusetts. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and Cisco said it aims to complete the acquisition in the second quarter of its fiscal year 2011.
LineSider markets software that enables companies to build network services and securely create and deploy cloud computing infrastructure. Cisco says LineSider will enhance its ability to rapidly provision network services to its clients. → Read More
I know we’re not technically in a recession and Americans love their electronics— especially those that start with the letter “i”— but as a whole, electronic retailers need a reality check, or a swift kick to the gut.
On Wednesday, CrunchGear’s Devin Coldewey and I dropped by two product announcements, one for Cisco’s purportedly consumer-friendly ūmi and Logitech’s Google TV accessory round-up. It was a long parade of flashy products with decent specs and thought-provoking price tags. As I mentioned in an earlier post, ūmi truly does bring high-quality telepresence into the home (assuming you have a solid connection) but it will cost you $599.99 for the hardware and $25 a month just to use the service.
When I asked Logitech’s CEO, Jerry Quindlen, what he thought about Cisco’s ūmi price point for TC TV, the polite executive merely said, “I don’t think anything that’s too expensive or isn’t easy to use is going to be successful, doesn’t matter who it’s from…if that’s where it [ūmi] is…that might be a tough sell in this economy.”
Why does the phrase: “pot calling the kettle black” come to mind? Video with Logitech’s CEO ahead. → Read More
After a 15-minute private demo of Cisco’s Umi, the company’s latest video calling system, I was fairly impressed with the unit’s sharp 1080p HD resolution and the natural feel of the audio (which is apparently designed to elevate human voices and suppress background noise). Then again, that level of quality is no real surprise given Cisco’s history in telepresence technology and their popularity on the enterprise side.
However, the main problem with Cisco is not innovation, it’s getting outside of the boardroom and finding a real place in the consumer’s living room— and no where is that gap more apparent than in Umi’s sticker price. As CrunchGear reporter Devin Coldewey lamented, it’s a consumer-facing device priced for the office at $599 for the system and $24.99 a month.
After the presentation, TC TV got a chance to catch up with Marthin De Beer, Cisco’s SVP of the Emerging Technologies Group, and asked him to justify Umi’s price. See parts of our demo and the interview with De Beer ahead. → Read More
