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Cisco chief stands by long-term forecast
Cisco Systems Inc's chief executive stood by his long-term revenue forecast, despite concerns that a deep and prolonged US recession could derail the company's growth plans.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:46 December 5, 2008
New York: Cisco Systems Inc's chief executive stood by his long-term revenue forecast, despite concerns that a deep and prolonged US recession could derail the company's growth plans.
CEO John Chambers has targeted revenue growth of 12 per cent to 17 per cent a year in the long run, even though the company has forecast revenue will be down 5 per cent to 10 per cent in the current quarter from a year earlier.
"We're very comfortable, with the appropriate normal economic conditions, of growing our business in the 12 to 17 per cent range," Chambers told a Credit Suisse technology conference.
"With appropriate caveats, we think the odds of achieving this are very good."
While Cisco has not been immune to the slower technology spending, Chambers has said customers will eventually need to buy more Cisco equipment to cope with growing Internet traffic.
Cisco shares reversed their early losses and traded up 3 per cent at $15.77 (Dh57.8) in late-morning dealings.
Remain aggressive
Chambers emphasised the company's ability to grow market share even in a downturn, and said it would remain aggressive in technology development and acquisitions of small companies despite the general slowdown.
He also said the company did not play major layoffs at this point, although it recently halted hiring and plans to shut down most of its US and Canadian operations for several days around the year-end to cut costs.
Since Chambers took over as CEO in January 1995, Cisco's annual revenue has grown from $1.2 billion to around $40 billion.
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