Cisco Systems Inc dash for growth by acquisition has by no means run out of steam, and the company expects to acquire six to 10 new companies in the next 12 months, chief executive John Chambers told the conference, adding that most of the acquisitions will be to add new or next generation technology; a model? The recently-acquired Granite Systems Inc is typical of what it will pursue – a small company with cutting edge, next generation technology that no one else matched, he said. Chambers also advised that Cisco’s quarterly revenue growth will continue to vacillate quarter to quarter because of increasingly short lead times in product sales, which have shrunk to one-to- four weeks before they want them, down from eight to 12 weeks a year ago, and said the variation is partly to explain why revenue grew 19% between its second and third quarter and then jumped 31% between its third and fourth quarters. The next big thing for Cisco will be further integration of speech, data and video in its products, and Cisco will also focus more efforts on the dial- up market for Internet access and on networking security – firewalls and encryption software.
