Saturday, April 10, 2010

Cisco and logitech join forces in videoconferencing services

Videoconferencing: Cisco, Logitech Target the Mainstream

Logitech's acquisition of LifeSize and Cisco's bid for Tandberg are aimed at grabbing market share and expanding sales to more businesses—and even consumers

Videoconferencing may finally be headed for the mainstream. The technology that lets people around the globe hold face-to-face meetings electronically has been around for decades. Yet many videoconferencing products have for too long been glitchy, overpriced, and hard to use.

Yet seemingly overnight, companies including Cisco Systems (CSCO), Logitech International (LOGI), and several lesser-known startups are engaged in a flurry of dealmaking aimed at grabbing more of the market and bringing the technology into more businesses and homes. Cisco on Nov. 16 upped to $3.4 billion its bid for market leader Tandberg (TAA.DE), hoping to win over investors who said the Oslo, Norway-based company is worth more than the initial $3 billion offer. Cisco may also introduce a videoconferencing product for consumers at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, BusinessWeek has learned. And in its largest-ever acquisition, PC accessories giant Logitech said on Nov. 10 it will pay $405 million for LifeSize Communications, a maker of high-end high-definition videoconferencing gear. Shares of Polycom (PLCM), the last remaining videoconferencing pure play, have risen 12.5% since Oct. 28, on hopes it may be the next to be bought.

The deals underscore a growing sense that videoconferencing is finally ready to go from an exotic luxury to an everyday part of business life. Thanks to increased broadband capacity, corporate networks can now better handle bandwidth-hogging videoconferencing sessions. Scores of consumers and businesspeople have sampled low-end options such as those offered by Internet-calling provider Skype, and millions of people now carry powerful laptops and smartphones with the processing power needed to join conferences from anywhere. Cisco has helped increase visibility for videoconferencing by heavily promoting its TelePresence technology, recently in a self-mocking product placement on NBC's 30 Rock.
Everyday Business Use

TelePresence can set a company back as much as $250,000 for a single conference room, but the range of prices is getting ever lower. Cisco CEO John Chambers is buying Tandberg in part because Tandberg is the leader in the larger market for less expensive room systems. On Nov. 9, Cisco announced Intranet software that would make videoconferencing a standard component on corporate Web sites. "We want this to be the place people start their day, and where they spend most of their day," says Cisco Senior Vice-President Tony Bates. "We're in it to win it."

So, it seems, is Logitech. Better known for its computer mice, Webcams, and other PC accessories, Logitech this month snapped up LifeSize, which sells videoconferencing products that range from $2,500 on the low end to tens of thousands of dollars for deluxe models. Logitech plans to use its manufacturing expertise to get better prices on components and make operations run more efficiently at the enlarged company, driving down prices on LifeSize's gear.

Lesser-known players are also trying to make videoconferencing waves. Hackensack (N.J.)-based Vidyo has a software-only offering that some analysts say may put pressure on industry pricing.

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Thursday, April 8, 2010

New Contract signed by Cisco with New Ingram to expand global opputunites

New Ingram Micro contract with Cisco expands global opportunities

Distributor Ingram Micro Inc. has signed a global contract with Cisco Systems Inc. that standardizes terms and conditions across all regions. As Cisco's largest global distributor, Ingram Micro will now be able to offer its resellers international access to Cisco products and related services with consistent terms, processes and support.

"Ingram Micro is committed to helping our vendors and customers grow their businesses, whether it be selling solutions across the street or across the globe," said Ken Bast, vice president, vendor management, Ingram Micro Inc. "Ingram Micro's new global contract with Cisco allows our resale partners to take full advantage of business opportunities on a worldwide scale. Now, our customers will be able to expand into new markets, as well as support their existing global clients with quicker product availability, which will ultimately shorten their sell cycle and positively impact their balance sheets."

Through these new terms, Ingram Micro's reseller partners can take advantage of Ingram Micro's worldwide footprint and gain entry into countries in which they currently do not have a presence. The contract applies to the more than 150 countries in which Ingram Micro supports Cisco sales. In addition, customers receive dedicated worldwide Cisco support through the Ingram Micro Global Order Desk, which will help customers fulfill orders all over the world. The Global Order Desk ensures that all parties comply with all legal, tax and trade requirements that are typical in cross-border deployments.

"Cisco is on the forefront of evolving traditional business models and programs to support globalization, and of operating as 'one Cisco,'" said Dave O'Callaghan, vice president distribution for Cisco. "This new global contract is another example of how our solid partnership with Ingram Micro can benefit not only our two companies, but also any solution provider looking to expand its global footprint."

Most people buy from ebay there are still available items there for a great value and price..XOXO

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Sunday, April 4, 2010

Cisco threatened by HP-3com Union?

 HP-3Com union a real Cisco threat

 (Network World Middle East Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Financial analysts see HP's pending purchase of 3Com as a threat to Cisco because it means 3Com Ethernet switches that are inexpensive and very popular in China will have better access to U.S. businesses via well-established HP sales channels.
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"We see HP's acquisition as primarily a response to Cisco's converged network/CPU strategy," writes Catharine Trebnick, an analyst with Avian Securities. "With Cisco owning the bulk of the enterprise Ethernet market, they have the most to lose if HP is successful in integrating the 3Com portfolio." Trebnick says HP's 3Com acquisition is filling a gap in its high-end networking to better compete with Cisco, and that 3Com's success in China will be a boon to HP. "Our conversations indicate that HP is well on its way to successfully maintaining [3Com's] China presence," she writes in a memo reacting to news of the deal.

A Brief History of 3Com Nikos Theodosopoulos and Jack Monti of UBS Warburg write that Cisco faces a long-term threat from the beefed-up HP because it could come at Cisco with aggressive pricing. 3Com's plan has been to sell its low-cost H-3C gear that is popular in China in countries around the world, they say. Trebnick is also optimistic that HP can use its established sales channels to expand 3Com's market share in North America where "success has been limited." "This acquisition has negative implications for every other provider of networking equipment," Trebnick says, spelling out some specifics, with Cisco being the main target with the most to lose by the new HP.

She says it seems logical that if HP wants to compete with Cisco on all fronts, it needs to make more purchases, possibly Avaya for unified communications and Polycom for telepresence and videoconferencing gear.

The deal is bad news for Brocade, she says, because HP sells Brocade storage gear under the name StorageWorks and might have hoped to make inroads with its Ethernet gear as well. But she writes that 3Com has been doing R&D on fibre channel over Ethernet, "raising the possibility that HP may build that functionality organically." Juniper is not affected as directly, she says, but if HP becomes stronger with corporate customers, it could blunt Juniper's momentum in enterprise sales.

Ittai Kidron and Joseph Park of Oppenheimer write that it is now unlikely that HP will try to buy Brocade, and also calls into doubt possible OEM relationships with Brocade and Juniper for data center switching and fibre channel over Ethernet products, because HP will probably try to develop this equipment in-house.

Near-term, though, the deal could be good for Cisco as well as Juniper and Brocade because integrating 3Com into HP will be disruptive, Kidron and Park write.

Analysts were impressed with 3Com's success in China, with Trebnick noting the Chinese government and corporate customers represent 30% of 3Com revenue, and Theodosopoulos and Monti noting its claim to 300 of the top 500 enterprises in China and a low-cost R&D center in that country.

Still, if HP wants to offer a complete array of network offerings it will have to make other purchases, strike OEM deals or develop its own technology, Theodosopoulos and Monti write in their bulletin about the deal.

In general, the purchase reduces the probability of other large networking mergers and acquisitions in the near term, they write, and that is likely to put pressure on the price of stocks of other companies they think might be acquisition targets, naming Brocade and F5. They also think that IBM is unlikely to buy networking vendors in the near term because it has OEM deals in the works with Juniper and Brocade that aren't fully up and running yet.

Will they be able to compete with cisco products thin not.?!?!?!

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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Cisco a trademarked iPhone!!!

Cisco a trademarked iPhone!!!

When Apple launched their smartphone and branded it the iPhone there was just one problem. The iPhone was already trademarked by Cisco which led to a lawsuit  and an eventual settlement of the trademark back in 2007.

Earlier this year Apple announced their breakthrough tablet called the iPad. Again, there was just one problem. As we previously reported, the iPad trademark was already owned by Fujitsu. Once again, as part of some strange business plan, Apple has now acquired the trademark from Fujitsu according to the PatentAuthority.com website.

You’d think at some point Apple would pay someone to do a little research and get any trademark rights before launching a landmark product. Mind you, I’m starting to think that it’s Apple’s game plan to get a previously owned trademark by pressuring the owner into selling it by stealing the association of a trademark with their own product.


Did Steve Jobs new about anything about CISCO?

Friday, January 15, 2010

Cisco Acquisition of Tandberg a Major Step in Unified Communications

Cisco Acquisition of Tandberg a Major Step in Unified Communications

Cisco, the Major Player in the Unified Communication World,as the convergence of technology continues to progress, we are truly seeing Voice, Video, email, and Wireless platforms merge into a cohesive singular solution.
Everyday, the worlds population embraces the internet for all forms of Communication; utilizing email, voice, video, and the combination of them, in online presentations, Movies, advertisements; such various interactions of people to people, B to B, and business to people.

Cisco is a 40 billion dollar International Corporation,with a Business Plan that calls for it to be the Leading Provider of "Unified Communications". The Convergence of Technologies has allowed for the growth of many new solutions and communication platforms to be brought forward over the past 20 years.

Cisco realized that its platform of products has been the prime foundation for the transmission of data, voice,video, etc, but relized long ago that it needed to acquire certain technology solutions which had already progressed in development over many, many years and had become leaders in pieces of the overall "Unified Communications" Solution. Cisco has surely made some great acquisitions that have helped to grow them to a 40 Billion Company and a Leader in the World.

In Cisco's attempt to build a True "telepresence" or Glorified Video Conferencing Solution, they had taken on a "Bear" of a task.

Video Conferencing, although out on the market for many years, has had it large share of difficulty in use. The standardization of platforms for one system to "speak" with others has been one of the large issues, as well as, utilization of presentation software within the Video Conference Presentation (as a PowerPoint presentation).

Users would find that voice and video and presentations did not always flow in a smooth and connected fashion, as transmitted in different timing modes, making it difficult to have a cohesive life like meeting.

The overriding benefit of Video Conferencing or "telepresence" is the ability to have gatherings, meetings, conferences; without the need to travel long distances, or take people out of their normal work day for excessive time beyond the scope of normal time alloted for a meeting, presentation, conference, training session, or any of the the other reasons to gather together for a single presentation. The Time savings, Travel Cost savings and ability to host such a meeting with short notice are just a few of the Return of Investment from utilizing such technology.

Tandberg has been a long term leader in the Video Conferencing World, since the inception of the technology and has the talent an process on Board to continue to evolve the Solution. It is a Continued multi year process for Cisco to Complete their present 'Telepresence" solution and build a reseller base capable of designing and implementing the "Grand" solution for such Companies that will spent $250,000 and more for a single Room that services 8-10 people.

Tandberg will fill the gap in both providing solutions that will fill the price points from $7500 to $249,000 and provide a wealth of Technological assistance to Cisco in the development of a dependable and evolving Video Conferencing and "telepresence" solutions for the growing "Unified Communication" clients emerging each day; based on the ROI of cost savings in owning such solutions or using a "Managed Cisco Solution" as an alternative to owning their own Solution.

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Friday, October 2, 2009

Cisco: ‘In Norway We Trust’

Cisco: In Norway We Trust

The push to Buy American could start to mean something quite different than a patriotic call to purchase homemade cars and appliances in the coming years.

Sensing a more stabilized economy, the largest technology companies have started to put their massive cash war chests into action, acquiring companies once again. Oracle led the way with its purchase of Sun Microsystems. EMC gobbled up Data Domain. VMware bought the open-source software maker SpringSource. And this week, Cisco made a $3.0 billion offer for Tandberg, a video-conferencing specialist.

It’s Cisco’s acquisition that jumps out because of its European flair. Tandberg is based in Oslo, Norway and provided Cisco with a unique opportunity to use some of its $35 billion in cash.

The vast majority - about $29 billion - of Cisco’s cash sits overseas. Cisco would have faced huge tax penalties to bring that money stateside if it wanted to buy another video-conferencing player like Polycom or LifeSize.

Ned Hooper, a senior vice president at Cisco, said the expected by noting that Cisco’s judges acquisitions first based on their strategic and cultural alignment. Of course, the international angle with Tandberg didn’t hurt either.
We do have a great deal of cash overseas and were able to use the international cash to pay for this transaction,Mr. Hooper said.

Cisco’s foreign cash situation is the most dramatic of the major American technology players, although all of the companies face similar problems.

John Chambers, Cisco’s chief executive, has grumbled about the government nixing a tax repatriation break.

With a major era of consolidation in the technology industry looming, these tax and cash issues seem destined to crop up again, especially as American companies are passed over and left to fend against even larger opponents.

On a more lighthearted note, the acquisition of Tandberg reminded me of a post made back in March about Cisco’s TelePresence video-conferencing systems.

A Sean Tyrrell commented on the post back then saying, If Cisco’s Telepresence is soooo good, why do they have to always give it away? In every global account I am involved in, Cisco gives these things away. The fact is they are expensive to operate, limited in that you can only see a few sites at a time, they ought to call it Tele-Absence.
Mr. Tyrrell, you see, works at Tandberg where he is a global account director, and he’s taken a sweeter tone on Cisco since the deal was announced.

In an e-mail, Mr. Tyrrell said, This is a win-win for both companies, but more importantly, it is a win for our customers and the overall market. I think it is a defining moment in the industry and that video collaboration will reach the masses much faster than it would have had Tandberg and Cisco fought it out alone.
Best of all, Cisco might be able to charge money for its products now.

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