Cunning plans outlined
After suffering a steady decline in market share, Cisco Systems wants to go back to being the king of network security. Chief Executive John Chambers had hoped that it would be able to pull it off with his SecureX product range, but it is starting look like that is not happening.
Now Chambers has granted Chris Young, Cisco's first executive for security at a senior vice president level, a "blank check" for the next two to three years to hire and acquire as he sees fit to overhaul Cisco's security business and spark a rebound.
Cisco has lost around 10 percent of its market share in network security to Juniper Networks, Checkpoint, and Palo Alto Networks.
Now it is looking like Young will have to buy Palo Alto Networks, FireEye, Sourcefire, Fortinet and Barracuda Networks. He already had a crack at Palo Alto Networks before the company went public in July 2012, but they could not agree on a deal valuation.
FireEye is another possible bet. FireEye's new CEO, industry veteran David DeWalt, is considering an initial public offering this year and so Cisco will have to move fast. Other rumours have suggested that Cisco would also be looking at Fortinet and privately held Barracuda Networks.
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Nick Farrell
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