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Earlier this week, network equipment manufacturer Cisco announced a cut of 500 jobs. The move was made as part of the company's periodic reassessment of needs and manpower. Most of the positions lost relate to the company's alliance with EMC and other superfluous data center positions. Cisco's worldwide workforce totals nearly 73,000 people.
A jury on Friday evening hit networking technology giant Cisco with a $70 million damages verdict for patent fraud. Reuters reported Friday that the jury found Cisco to have fraudulently obtained technology developed by XpertUniverse. Cisco was also found to have violated two XpertUniverse patents, with an additional $34,000 in damages awarded due to those claims.
As expected, Belkin has finalized the deal to purchase Cisco's home networking business unit. Belkin is going to maintain the Linksys brand and all associated services, and will support Cisco's products -- including warranty support and repair. With the acquisition, Belkin now holds 30 percent of the entire US home and small business networking market.
Cisco has won in a patent infringement trial against patent-licensing firm VirnetX. A jury in a Texas court found in favor of Cisco Systems, confirming that it did not infringe on VirnetX Holding Corp's patents relating to secure network communications, and rejecting a demand from VirnetX for $258 million in damages.
Google increased the amount it spent on lobbying the US government 90 percent year-over-year in 2012, according to data compiled by Fortune. The company ended up spending $18.22 million, easily beating out any other American technology firm. Microsoft, in fact, came in second place with $8.09 million, despite likewise increasing its spending. Other major tech businesses that funneled more money toward lobbying last year included HP, Facebook, and Amazon.
Networking company Cisco today reported its second quarter results for the period that concluded on January 26, 2013. Cisco reported second quarter net sales of $12.1 billion, and net income of $3.1 billion or $0.59 per share -- beating Wall Street's conservative estimates handily. The company included total tax benefits of approximately $926 million related to a tax settlement with the Internal Revenue Service from a recent reinstatement of a research tax credit at the beginning of the year.
Computer accessory manufacturer Belkin revealed on Thursday that it has entered into an agreement to purchase Cisco's home networking business unit, including the Linksys brand and all associated products. Belkin intends to maintain the Linksys brand, and will continue to support all of Cisco's products in the sector, including warranty support and replacement.
Network equipment manufacturer Cisco is intending to acquire Israel-based networking software producer Intucell for $475 million. The deal would give Cisco more options to offer its customers in terms of software-defined networking, as well as access to Intucell's existing agreements with telecommunications companies such as AT&T, something that Intucell provides some of the infrastructure for.
Cisco is being sued for trademark infringement over one of its marketing campaigns. East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina has announced the start of legal proceedings in a federal court, over the use of the slogan 'Tomorrow Starts Here' in a Cisco campaign shown on television, print publications, augmented reality, and also online.
Cox Communications has shown off a new version of its mobile app, which it hopes will give a more personalized TV experience to customers. Jointly developed with Cisco, the new mobile application will offer access to 90 live TV channels, on demand content, personalized video recommendations, and will also function as a remote control for the Cox TV program guide, Trio.
According to industry sources, Cisco Systems has hired Barclays to find a buyer for its home networking division Linksys. Reportedly, Cisco is planning on divesting itself of the home router manufacturer as part of its strategy to exit consumer-level businesses while expanding in technology services, and other corporate solutions.
Cisco announced today that it would be purchasing Cariden Technologies, a privately-held traffic management software maker. The networking giant will pay about $141 million in total for Cariden, which supplies network planning and design solutions for telecoms. The move is Cisco's third major acquisition in a month.
Cisco has acquired cloud startup Meraki for a reported $1.2 billion. The deal, entirely in cash, sees the networking giant take control of the networking infrastructure service, which offers mid-sized organizations on-site Wi-Fi networking, security, and cloud-based management software at a relatively low cost.
Cisco Systems reported earnings for the most recent financial quarter today, revealing quarterly revenue and earnings that beat the average Wall Street analyst estimates. The networking equipment manufacturer reported a six percent jump in revenue year-over-year, totaling $11.9 billion. Wall Street had expected Cisco to log about $11.77 billion in revenue for the quarter.
Networking equipment manufacturer Cisco is accusing competitor Huawei Technologies of misstating facts doing a 2003 copyright infringement case, and has released segments of what was said from a previously sealed document. Cisco wait it was revealing parts of an expert's report "so the world could learn what really happened."
Networking gear maker Cisco has acquired ThinkSmart Technologies. The company announced the acquisition in a post on Cisco's blog. Financial specifics on the deal are as yet unavailable.
The legal patent dispute between TiVo and Verizon has been settled, with the latter paying the former about $250.4 million and monthly licensing fees. Verizon will fork over $100 million initially and then pay the remaining amount in quarterly installments until it's paid off by July 2018. The monthly fees will only apply to FiOS DVR users above a certain level.
Cisco announced results for the most recent quarter last night, with the computer networking equipment company revealing earnings that slightly outperformed analysts expectations. As The New York Times reports, the router maker is cautiously optimistic regarding its future but maintains that it is too early to call the most recent results a trend. The European market, in particular, represents something of a challenge for Cisco going forward.
Cisco announced today that it will be cutting 1,300 positions from its workforce as part of an effort to streamline its organizational structure and reduce costs. As Bloomberg reports, the two percent workforce reduction was announced in an emailed statement today. The move is part of a continuing effort by Cisco to retool itself for the modern tech environment.
Router and switch maker Cisco recently pushed an automatic firmware update on some of its routers that forced users to sign up for a new service, and also mandated a less-private "shrink wrap" EULA at the same time, outraged users report. Internet forums lit up about both the firmware update and privacy document, which suggested Cisco could track and share information about users' Internet usage, such as sites visited, data quantities sent and received, and "other information" in the interest of improving service quality.
In a trio of related announcements today, Cisco unveiled a new next-generation Wi-Fi router, a media sharing hub, and an ecosystem meant to support both devices. The new Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Router and Universal Media Connector will work in conjunction to allow users greater device interoperability, at speeds up to three times faster than current Wi-Fi routers. Cisco hopes that the two new devices will find support from developers, and the company has also rolled out a new community aimed at nurturing an app ecosystem to take advantage of the two new devices' capabilities.
Cisco knew late last year that its enterprise-oriented Cius tablet stood no chance against Apple's iPad, long before the company discontinued support for the tablet. Speaking with reporters from Network World, among others, Cisco CEO John Chambers said that the company should have killed off the Cius nine months ago. The company, Chambers said, will continue to focus its efforts on developing collaboration software across multiple platforms.
Very soon after Cisco sued TiVo to challenge TiVo's claims to patents used in DVRs, TiVo has gone ahead and sued Cisco back. According to a Tuesday report, there are four patents in contention and TiVo is involved in several lawsuits against a number of companies that bought the allegedly offending DVRs from Cisco. Cisco's Scientific Atlanta arm sells boxes to cable providers that include AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon Communications.
Cisco has filed a complaint against TiVo, alleging that the DVR maker will not grant broad licenses to its technology because such licenses would decrease TiVo's leverage with regard to patent lawsuits. The suit claims that TiVo is wrongfully alleging that Cisco's DVR offerings constitute violations of patents TiVo holds. Analysts familiar with the proceedings contend that a victory for Cisco would represent a significant financial burden for TiVo.
In its annual visual networking index forecast, network equipment maker Cisco expects Internet Protocol traffic to increase dramatically over the next four years. Cisco forecasts an annual compound growth rate of 29 percent between now and 2016, with global IP traffic reaching the equivalent of 38 million DVDs per hour in four years' time.
In a blog post this week, Cisco revealed that the company will no longer be producing the Cius. The enterprise-focused tablet was released last year but never caught on with business consumers, who are increasingly opting for Apple's iPad, and other competitors to a lesser extent, as a mobile computing solution.
Apple is one of several parties in talks with Russia's Skolkovo technology park about possible research and development facilities there, according to local publication Izvestia. Other interested companies are said to include Google and Facebook; agreements are reportedly already in place for firms such as Microsoft, IBM, General Electric, and Cisco. Skolkovo's organizers are said to be aiming at making the park a Russian equivalent of Silicon Valley.
China's second biggest telecommunications gear maker ZTE was found to have sold embargoed US computer equipment to Iran. A Tuesday Reuters report claimed that documents show ZTE sold some computer gear as part of a $10.5 million supply contract to a unit that controls Iranian telecoms. The documents are dated June 30, 2011 and explain how Iran got sophisticated US hardware despite sanctions against such transactions.
AT&T's Cisco-made PS3 jailbreaking, has posted explorations that have shown it might be dangerously open. Connecting to the WAN Ethernet port lets users run with root-level privileges on the mini, virtual cell site's Linux OS without a password. Although data going out is routed to a specific AT&T connection, the full access means anyone can change the IP to somewhere else.
Cisco's Linksys badge unveiled a trio of new Smart Wi-Fi routers with updates both for software and the pure technology underneath. The EA4500, EA3500, and EA2700 all support apps that link into the Cisco Connect Cloud web portal to not just administer the router from outside the home network but control attached devices. Cisco has suggested home theater devices like TVs, and even home appliances, could be controlled as long as they're on the same router.
Apple leads US corporations in terms of cash reserves, notes Moody’s Investors Service’s Richard Lane. In all US corporations are said to hold about $1.2 trillion. Apple controls $97.6 billion; other tech companies in the top five include Microsoft with $51.7 billion, Cisco with $46.7 billion, and Google with $44.6 billion. Drugmaker Pfizer is fifth.
Google is already looking to sell the set-top box business it will get as part of the $12.5 billion buy of Motorola Mobility, the New York Post claimed. In August, during the announcement of the purchase, the plan was to make the business work under Google's tutelage. Cable operators have been slow to buy Motorola set-tops ever since the Google buy was announced.
The Wi-Fi Alliance has responded to word of security exploits in Wi-Fi Protected Setup with a statement alluding to a fix. It claimed to The Verge that its test routine and certification now made sure that Wi-Fi devices "effectively resist" brute, PIN code-based attacks. How that would resolve the gap, and whether or not a patch would be available for those devices that had already shipped, wasn't mentioned.
Industry association Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) revealed on Thursday that some of the biggest carriers in the world have successfully tested Next Generation Hotspots (NGH). Wi-Fi access to these hubs is much simpler, and the second half of 2012 will see more tests that involve more advanced features. The first commercial NGHs will be built over the course of the next 10 months.
Cisco has posted a formal appeal of the EU approval for Microsoft's acquisition of Skype. The networking giant accepted the merger on a basic level, but it wanted the European Commission to have imposed interoperability requirements. Making Microsoft adhere to standards would prevent it from trying to "control the future of video communications," Cisco said.
Cisco in a yearly state-of-affairs report on Tuesday showed both a rapid growth in data and aggressive predictions for the next four years. Mobile data use had grown 133 percent over the course of 2011, which it didn't see slowing down. As mobile viewers got more devices as well as faster connections, video use would become 70 percent of mobile data and lead to 18 times more data used per year in 2016, at 10.8 exabytes every month.
Cisco's Linksys badge brought out three new powerline networking kits for those who prefer or need mostly wired links. The PLEK400 one-port kit, PLSK400 four-port kit, and PLW400 wireless extender all run on the HomePlug standard and can reach up to 200Mbps. Linksys is vowing a small design that makes it practical to hook up other devices to the local wall outlet.
The IPv6 Internet addressing standard will get a more formal launch by its backers on June 6, which is being devoted World IPv6 Day. Seven global ISPs will back the new standard then, including AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner. Also onboard are heavily trafficked websites, including Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft's Bing, as well as hardware makers Cisco and D-Link.
Cisco has stopped sales of its Umi video conferencing system Umi that has been price-dropped and re-branded for business use, SAI learned. While an official announcement to this effect hasn't been made by Cisco, a spokesperson confirmed to the source Cisco has stopped selling the system. When the system launched, it was expensive at $600 and included a 720p camera, controller and set-top box. In March, it was discounted to $400.
Eight metropolitan areas will soon be getting high-speed "middle-mile" networks. These are the backbones that feed the "last mile" that bring broadband services to customers and businesses. Last week, the city-owned DC Community Access Network (DC-CAN) lit up its 100-gigabit network in Washington, DC, while earlier this week, Verizon said it was upgrading seven cities in its FiOS backbone network to similar speeds.
Apple on Tuesday was reported as having had a lawsuit tossed in China over claims a small firm was violating the iPad trademark. The Shenzhen-area Southern Metropolis Daily said that the Intermediate People's Court dismissed the case against Proview Technology based on time to file. Proview had filed for the trademark in 2000, several years before work had even started on the iPad.
Cisco has plans to follow up its enterprise-oriented seven-inch Cius tablet with at least two potential successors, CNET learned. A larger and smaller version are due in the spring and fall of next year, respectively. The current tablet uses Android but is optimized for business use with a slew of security software. It also docks into phone stations for desk use.
Network gear maker Cisco and Swedish provider Telia at the DreamHack LAN event in Sweden yesterday tested their world record-setting 120Gbps Internet connection. All of the estimated 20,000 attendees were invited to test the connection, which runs the more than 186 miles between Stockholm and Jönköping. Previously, record speeds set at DreamHack were 20 gigabits.
VirnetX revealed on Monday that its latest lawsuit against Apple was being joined by a matching International Trade Commission dispute. The complaint touches on the same VPN-related patent used in the main lawsuit and which VirnetX has tried to wield against large parts of the technology industry. It hopes not just to ban future iPad, iPhone, iPod, and Mac sales but to stop all marketing and sales around whatever is currently in stores should it win.
AT&T has just introduced its latest U-verse TV accessory, the TV Wireless Receiver (PDF). Due on October 31, it will connect to the company's residential gateway and send broadcasts over Wi-Fi from the receiver to the TV. This lets customers put TV sets in rooms or other places, such as patios or backyards, where there are no TV outlets.
Innovatio IP Ventures, a company that owns a portfolio of patents reportedly tied to Wi-Fi technology, has began suing coffee shops, grocery stores, restaurants and hotels for allegedly infringing upon those patents. According to PatentExaminer, the company's strategy is to prey on ill-prepared franchises rather than parent companies and offering them the option of settling for between $2,300 and $5,000. Innovatio is represented by Niro, Haller & Niro, the firm associated with patent trolls from the time the term was coined.
Samsung ramped up the launch of four new smartphones under a previously hinted new naming scheme. The Galaxy W hits the new mid-range and runs on a 1.4GHz, single-core chip with a 3.7-inch display. It still as much of the modern TouchWiz interface on top of Android 2.3 and supports up to 14.4Mbps HSPA for reasonably fast 3G.
Cisco on Tuesday introduced its new Linksys WES610N 802.11n Wi-Fi dual-band entertainment bridge. The device will bring together any home theater device with an Ethernet port onto a home wireless network, be they set-top boxes, HDTVs or games consoles. It can offer speeds up to 300Mbps and has multiple antennas for greater range.
The Cisco Cius tablet that went on pre-order back in April will ship this summer, Verizon announced on Wednesday. The pro Android tablet will initially, however, only be available to Verizon's enterprise and government customers. It will be the Wi-Fi version of the slate, with no built-in 3G or 4G.
Cisco is reportedly preparing to reduce its workforce by approximately 14 percent, a move that may eliminate 10,000 positions. The company is said to be planning 7,000 layoffs by the end of August, while early-retirement incentives will be offered to another 3,000 employees, unnamed sources have told Bloomberg.
