Cisco Systems Inc was fairly tentative over its Research Triangle Park base to start with, setting up there with 200 people in 1994 to be close to IBM Corp’s Raleigh operations for the sake of its joint ventures with IBM (CI No 2,662). However, it now plans to double the size of its Raleigh operation, bringing the number of employees there up to 2,000 over time where it had expected employment to top out at 1,000. It has exercised its option to buy another 55 acres of land adjacent to its campus at the site, bringing its total to about 100 acres. The company currently employs about 550 people at the base. It did not give the price of the land or the construction project, but said that it will not require the firm to take on any debt.
