[Cryptography] "completely unexpected" drop in Cisco's foreign revenues

[John Ioannidis]

On Mon, Dec 1, 2014 at 8:00 PM, Jerry Leichter <leichter at lrw.com> wrote:

> On Dec 1, 2014, at 8:46 AM, ianG <iang at iang.org> wrote:
> > Cisco’s disastrous quarter shows how NSA spying could freeze US
> companies out of a trillion-dollar opportunity
> > Bellwether Cisco indicates American tech companies are no longer welcome
> in Russia and other emerging markets.(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
> Before you take this at face value - think back a couple of years, when
> every CEO was out there citing "the disruptive effects of El Niño on
> markets" as an excuse for the poor performance of their firms.
>
> Cisco has many other challenges.  Their basic technological approach -
> specialized hardware for routing, using proprietary software and protocols,
> which the market took to justify high margins - is under serious attack by
> SDN. Their investments outside of their core strengths haven't panned out -
> just what made them think buying Flip cameras was a good idea?  Their high
> end teleconferencing stuff seems to have a limited market, as there are a
> number of "good enough" competitors out there already.
>
> How much the NSA revelations affected them is very difficult to say.
> Frankly, I doubt they really know themselves.  But they sure make for a
> good excuse....
>
>                                                         -- Jerry
>

My feelings exactly. It makes for a good story to tell to the policymakers
though (not that they care, they have other sources of bribes anyway).

Maybe if cisco spent more time worrying about their core product line and
less about the Internet of Things they would be better off...

/ji
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