Cisco, Procket deal ‘curious’
p2pnet.net News:- Cisco Systems believes VoIP is certain to become a big earner and accordingly, plans to spend $89 million in cash to buy the privately held Procket Networks Inc, which makes routers and routing technology.
Cisco already earns billions of bucks selling other types of hardware to route data online and corporate networks and is now one of the dominant players in the Internet telephony niche as well, says an SFGate report here, going on:
“Already Cisco has sold 3 million Internet phones to companies, including Adobe Systems, Lehman Bros. and IBM. The company says it has 14,500 Internet phone customers, including 60 percent of the Fortune 50. And it has nearly a quarter of the $2.9 billion corporate Internet phone market, according to industry estimates, with an especially big lead in selling telephones.”
Now, Cisco will acquire Procket’s intellectual property, a majority of the engineering team, and select assets, says a Network World Fusion story here.
But, says story, the deal is curious.
“Procket was an emerging competitor to Cisco in core routing with the introduction of its PRO/8800 router last year. Procket had garnered about 2 percent of the 10Gbps routing market in the first quarter of 2004, according to Dell’Oro Group.
“A Cisco spokesman says Cisco is not acquiring Procket products, customer contracts, liabilities, debts or real estate.”
