I almost fell out of my seat this afternoon when I read in the WSJ that Cisco paid $590 million in stock for the consumer electronics startup responsible for the really cool HD video camera, the Minio. I've complained about this willy-nilly acquisition strategy before.
Now that networking is a mature market, Cisco refuses to think of itself as a utility and keeps acquiring with no apparent synergies with their existing customers, channels or products. {shadowboxwtw2}Sadly, I predict that this will end badly for Cisco shareholders.{/shadowboxwtw2}
Of course, this happens because the management of the company are so arrogant to as think that they can manage a portfolio of investments better than their shareholders can. Who knows, maybe a bank is next for Cisco, since the one thing all these acquisitions have in common is that they use money to run their businesses….
