Cisco – it never rains but it pours

Cisco has been going through a rough time of late, particularly in terms of its product lines, including getting back to basics – producing switches and routers.

The foray into servers may have been a mistake as it alienated HP, IBM and Dell. However, there are also some charges that Cisco is litigating against.

Cisco is streamlining its business, trying to concentrate on core switches and routers but there are some pretty nasty accusations out there, including allegedly optimising its network equipment so that Chinese authorities could track individuals who were “anonymously” engaged in prodemocracy activity on the Internet.

There is also the case of the former Cisco executive being arrested in Canada accused by Cisco of software theft although a justice of the British Columbia Supreme Court said that Cisco officials used false and misleading information to ensure the arrest.

It never rains but it pours and Cisco will be well ware of the poor publicity it is getting apart from its internal problems and credibility issues with Wall Street.