https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/networking-startup-nile-raises-175-million-challenge-cisco-2023-08-01/
21 replies (most recent on top)
Chambers and his "Senile Insecure" AI: a hundred of Indians are monitoring network logs 24/7 and calling tech support before the client figures out what junk he/she got installed. They are mostly targeting schools since they are gullible and non-techie.
Chambers jumped the shark when he introduced Councils and Boards with like 100 priorities. When everyone is in charge no one is in charge.
That said I know first hand how he reached out to help employees to help with getting them preferred treatment at placed like Duke Hospital.
Nile Secure: Senile and Insecure
I'd take a deceased Rick Justice any day. Seemed like the guy was always straight with us.
"Chambers hated laying off people, but it was necessary at the time."
Some very gullible people here. The guy is an actor. He literally just repeated what a horde of highly paid PR and personal image consultants tell him to pass as a likeable guy. Chambers is a very clueless man. Look at the billions he poured down the drain on failed acquisitions, look at the stock lagging everyone for a decade, listen to the ridiculous statements he routinely made to analysts during earnings calls. He was going to build office space for tens of thousands of employees in Coyote Creek. Fast forward 15 years and San Jose will soon be renaming Cisco Way to Blame Chambers Lane.
Chambers hated laying off people, but it was necessary at the time.
Humbug. He had frequent layoffs, sometimes as often as quarterly from 2001 until he left in 2015. During the good years he handed whole teams to competitors for free.
Robbins is rewriting the culture Chambers put in place.
Under Chambers Cisco couldn't develop itself out of a paper bag and the infighting between groups was massive. If Chuck actually did change these then more power to him!
Chambers was much more personable.
Yes, the con man who had the clueless believing they were his "family." He's three for three in the reasons given in the Ted Talk titled "Why do so many incompetent men become leaders?"
I'd go back to Chambers in a heartbeat.
You'd be up to 1,000 first priorities, the stock would be around $10 and you'd be trying to sell $5,000 networked steam mops.
Chambers had no idea how to deal with the technical debt he created at Cisco, and no idea how to move the company forward. The same goes for everyone on this website complaining about Chuck. If he has any smarts he'll just be a figurehead at Nile and let people with actual talent build the new company.
Chambers hated laying off people, but it was necessary at the time. Now Robbins lays off when it is not necessary and calls it restructuring to put lipstick on the pig, then he turns the layoff process into a legal matter. Luckily for us at Cisco there is nothing illegal about treating people badly like we do. Sorry you all, we are all not like this in Cisco. (Yes, I feel like a wimp for not speaking up more.)
There's a huge difference between these two CEOs. Chambers focused on people. Robbins focuses on his portfolio and putting himself on a pedestal. Robbins is rewriting the culture Chambers put in place. No wonder they don't get along. Just seeing Robbins waltz in and out at check-ins at San Jose has told me a lot. Robbins seems to think of himself as a celebrity. Chambers was much more personable. I'd go back to Chambers in a heartbeat. I think Nile has a great chance while Robbins and Fran are here. The high risk for Nile is that could change on them.
I loved my SYSCO stocks during the JC era. CISCO on the other hand...
Fifteen years of driving the stock from $82 to $25 and then seven years gone and he's still a cult leader.
If the compensation numbers that were posted here are correct he saw a massive gain in 2008 during the biggest economic collapse in most of our lifetimes and the stock dropped from around $26 to $16. Keep down voting reality!
"JC was personable too."
Ahahahahahah you juste made my day. Like when he almost shed a tear when he had to layoffs thousands, because it reminded him so much of his Wang days and he promised himself he'd never do itb again. Oh yeah, soooo convincing and very personable.
2014 – Total compensation of $16,488,184, which included a base salary of $1,100,000, a cash bonus of $2,500,000, stocks granted of $12,876,709, and other compensation worth $11,475.[30]
2013 – Total compensation of $21,049,501, which included a base salary of $1,100,000, a cash bonus of $4,700,080, stocks granted of $15,237,652, and other compensation worth $11,769.[31]
2012 – Total compensation of $11,687,666, which included a base salary of $375,000, a cash bonus of $3,953,376, stocks granted of $7,348,265, and other compensation worth $11,025.[31]
2011 – Total compensation of $12,890,829 which included a base salary of $375,000, no cash bonus, stocks granted of $12,500,100, and other compensation worth $11,025.[31]
2009 – Total compensation of $12,788,498, which included a base salary of $375,000, a cash bonus of $2,031,000, stocks granted of $10,372,500, and other compensation worth $9,998.[32]
2008 – Total compensation of $18,767,149, which included a base salary of $375,000, a cash bonus of $3,002,802, stocks granted of $6,442,000, and options granted of $8,938,260.[33]
2007 – Total compensation of $12,801,773, which included a base salary of $350,096, a cash bonus of $3,500,000 and options granted of $8,944,000.[34]
Who do Azure, AWS and GCP have to thank ? JC. The biggest networking company in the world lost to a book selling startup, a dinosaur company selling windows OS, and a search engine company all because JC allowed an internal mafia group to sabotagoe any internal efforts to become cloud providers. The only thing spinout, spin-back-in did was to make MPLS richer and richer.
Chambers is a dinosaur. Also seems like a conflict of interest, or ethics (as if that means anything to C-Suite dwellers).
Does Nile actually have any customers?
Based on the down votes they'd have at least 10 customers if they brought back the Flip camera.
Too many true stories of him being real and personable.
When you sing the song of accountability and give yourself a bonus you didn't earn by the metrics you yourself set, and you're rich enough that it makes no difference at all to your lifestyle "real" is not the correct word. Then there was the claim that annual layoffs are the sign of failed management...
Perhaps you overheard people talking about puppies?
Building 9 is closing.
LOL Flip Video, what a stinker. That reminds me of an old colleague of mine from back in the day...
This dude was obsessed with Shark Tank and had somehow convinced himself that he was some entrepreneurial genius. Always talking about his stupid ideas while others and I would just roll our eyes and laugh at him behind his back.
When Cisco discontinued Flip Video this dude went into a full on rage, I'm talking frothing at the mouth. Screaming about how Cisco was sitting on a goldmine and if they would listen to his ideas about Flip Video his RSUs/ESPP shares would skyrocket and make him a millionaire overnight.
"You know these smartphones seem to keep getting better and better fairly quickly, why would anyone want to buy Flip Video?"
I asked him that once and Mr. Wonderful just stared off into space.
I wonder whatever happened to that guy, probably died of a massive heart attack.
Does Nile actually have any customers? There is definitely a lot of competition these days, but I can't say I have seen Nile at a paying customer yet. Cisco tried several times to develop a NaaS product, but never came to market - perhaps because it would compete with the partner channels. Maybe the same reasons Cisco never got to market with cloud IaaS either (competition with UCS and partner channel).
LOL - this is the same business mastermind that over saw the worlds most valued company's stock price slipping into mid $30s for like 10yrs. yeah...really worried. remember the flip camera and slate?!? lol....nopes.
JC was personable too. Too many true stories of him being real and personable.
Personally, I wish him well. However, he is as equally clueless as CR and his cronies. At least he had charisma unlike CR who has the charisma of a plank of wood.