Cisco posts barnstorming third quarter

No stopping growth of networking giant as it posts 21 per cent growth in turnover for Q3

Cisco’s barnstorming growth run shows no sign of slowing as the networking juggernaut closed the books on another strong quarter.

The technology bellwether registered a 21 per cent year-on-year jump in turnover to $8.9bn for the three months to 28 April as net profit soared 34 per cent to $1.9bn.

The quarter also saw Cisco step up its acquisition activity: as well as devouring online conferencing vendor WebEx (CRN, 26 March), the giant closed its acquisitions of Five Across, Reactivity, Neopath Networks and SpansLogic.

Cisco made a total of just eight acquisitions in 2006.

A buoyant John Chambers, chief executive at Cisco, said: “We have now had 13 quarters in a row of order growth in the 12-19 per cent growth range year-over-year on a standalone basis. It is this balance across products, services, geographies, and customer segments in our business that is resulting in the consistent results.”

Although its advanced technologies were again the star of the show - growing 24 per cent - Cisco also registered a solid 16 and 15 per cent growth of its traditional routing and switching products, respectively.