Comms giant Cisco reports US$10.8bn quarter

12 Aug 2010

Cisco has reported a profit of US$1.9bn on fourth quarter revenues of US$10.8bn. This revenues for the full year 2010 to US$40bn out of which the company derived a US$7.8bn profit.

“This was yet another very strong quarter with a number of record financial results for Cisco, closing the fiscal year in a tremendous position of strength—a compelling financial model, a well-tuned innovation engine and solid execution on our growth strategy,” said John Chambers, chairman and CEO, Cisco.

Chambers continued: “Whether the global economy continues to show mixed signals or not—the strength of our financial model and profit generation serves us well.

“As we to continue to successfully grow our business and share of IT investments, our focus is squarely on helping our customers accelerate productivity and growth.

“We are very confident in our strategy, and will continue to aggressively move into new areas where the network is becoming the platform, and where our customers want us to invest and innovate,” Chambers said.

The fourth quarter results included a pre-tax impairment charge of US$120m.

Cash flow for the company was US$3.2bn, up from US$3bn last year. The company has cash and investments valued at US$39.9bn.

Cisco repurchased 99 million common shares valued at US$2.3bn, bringing to US$65bn the amount of shares the company has repurchased under its repurchase programme. The remaining authorised repurchase amount at the end of July stood at US$7bn.

During the quarter Cisco announced and completed the acquisition of CoreOptics, a designer of digital signal processing solutions for high-speed optical networking applications.

Cisco announced and completed the acquisition of MOTO Development Group, a design consulting firm that develops products and product strategies for the consumer industry.

Cisco completed its acquisition of the set-top box business of DVN (Holdings), a market and technology leader in digital cable solutions in China that shares Cisco’s vision of a high-performance, scalable and services-rich cable interactive platform extending into every home.

Cisco made a commitment to invest up to US$1bn to encourage entrepreneurship and sustainable innovation in Russia as a partner in achieving the country’s goals.

The company also launched the Cisco Cius mobile collaboration business tablet designed to deliver virtual desktop integration with anywhere, anytime access.

“We are very pleased with our results for the fourth quarter, achieving a total revenue increase of approximately 27pc year-over-year at the upper end of our guidance, alongside the exceptional quality of our earnings,” said Frank Calderoni, chief financial officer, Cisco.

“During fiscal 2010 we generated more than US$10bn in cash from operations and saw growth in our deferred revenue, working capital, backlog, and cash and investments. We will continue to use this strong financial position to expand our portfolio and deliver a compelling value proposition for our investors, partners, customers and employees,” Calderoni said.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com