Cisco bullish despite Q1 slump

John Chambers: we believe this may be the most profound opportunity for businesses in our 25 years as a company

Networking giant Cisco has extended its stock repurchase strategy by a further $10bn (£6bn) as its turnover slumped 13 per cent in its first quarter of 2010.

The vendor posted net turnover of $9bn (£5.4bn) for its Q1 financials, down 13 per cent on 2009, and net profit of $1.8bn (£1.08bn), a 19 per cent drop on the same quarter the previous year.

In previous years the board of directors had authorised up to $62bn (£37bn) in stock repurchases, bringing the total amount of stock left to repurchase under the combined strategy to about $13.1bn (£7.9bn).

However, despite the Q1 drop, Cisco chief executive John Chambers was confident.

"Building off what we saw as a clear tipping point in Q4, our Q1 results continued to reflect strong sequential growth trends that meet or exceed expectations during normal economic times," he said.

"We view the improving economic outlook, combined with solid execution on our growth strategy, as creating unparalleled opportunity to drive more value into the core of the network.

"We believe that key market transitions across collaboration, virtualisation and video will drive productivity and growth in network loads for the next decade, and are evolving even faster than expected."

Chambers added that the momentum gained through various product launches and collaboration activities will provide the greatest opportunity in the vendor's history.

"Our build-buy-partner innovation engine is clearly running on all cylinders, while our operational machine is pulling costs out of the business even as we scale new models for growth," he said.

"Execution and results over time will demonstrate the long-term impact of this vision and strategy, but a new model of productivity based on collaboration is clearly emerging and we believe this may be the most profound opportunity for businesses in our 25 years as a company."