I thought I had heard everything, and then I see Cisco buying PostPath for $215 million! Fortunately they announced this in the last week of August, right before the Labor Day holiday when everybody is out on vacation or taking baby steps to go back to school. The timing certainly suited a stinker of a deal.
Here's the Brockmann angle on this deal:
Strategic Fit [0/5].
Although there is zero product overlap in that Cisco has no email, calendaring or collaboration software, this does not fit the Cisco value proposition. Servers are purchased by IT applications folks and it's a tough slog to overcome an incumbent in important software technologies as well entrenched as either IBM Lotus (not the target market I understand since Lotus focuses quite well on large enterprise) or Microsoft Exchange (midmarket-centric).
There is no advantage in rolling out this Cisco product or integrating it within the rest of the Cisco line. Is Cisco going to buy an electrical production company so they can sell customers electricity too?
Timing [4/5].
I suppose if you have an announcement that you had overpaid for technology nobody will buy from you, releasing it while the world in on vacation is a good time. I suppose Christmas Day would have been the better choice, but that's probably too far away…
Customer Demand [0/5].
Is Cisco giving up on networking? Will this will be integrated into IOS?
Potential [1/5].
This is fluff. Despite the protestations of Michael Osterman, UC was never about email. It's about presence, instant messaging, VoIP, mobility and video. This is one of the few boneheaded acquisitions that Cisco has ever made and joins the IP Mobile and the 1999 Aironet acquisitions (Cisco bought at least 1 other WiFi company) as 'odd.'
