Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

Totally agree with Chambo. HPE purchased Cray supercomputers , are working on AI for the last decade , publishing research, ...

HPE bought Cray, SGI, Compaq which brought in companies like DEC and Tandem, Convex, Apollo, etc... They also bought a lot of networking companies and software companies. This translates into the following financials:

• HPE's market cap is well below Splunk's just before the acquisition
• HPE's operating margins are a touch over a third of Cisco's
• HPE is 60% debt/equity, Juniper is 40% debt/equity, and HPE will borrow $14B (63% of HPE's market value or 118% of Juniper's) to buy Juniper
• HPE saw quarterly revenue (yoy) drop by nearly 3 times the percentage of Cisco
• Juniper saw quarterly revenue (yoy) drop by about the same percentage as Cisco
• HPE saw quarterly earnings (yoy) drop by more than 4.5 times the percentage of Cisco
• Juniper saw quarterly earnings (yoy) drop by more than 6 times the percentage of Cisco
• HPE's annual revenues are more than 7% lower than they were more than 7 years ago versus about a 17% increase at Cisco over the same time period
• DEC was worth $14B in 1989. If that had simply kept up with inflation it would be worth more than the current market values of HPE and Juniper combined today

There is non-trivial overlap between Aruba and Juniper and they'll lose most of a year before the merger completes and they can make actual moves to consolidate the product lines while trying not to torque off existing customers. Juniper has taken market share from Cisco at the cost of far lower margins and far higher debt/equity. Juniper will now have to pay the additional costs of the extra layers HPE will layer upon it.

At this point I wouldn't put money on either company, but financially HPE/Juniper are clearly weaker.

And no Cisco AI solution in existence 10 years after the industry adoption of Ai which started in 2014.

Cisco had AI/ML work far earlier than this. They also had bungee management which jerked the team into non-existence.

Let's just look at the network management side of AI. The only effort Cisco ever publicized to create a consistent programmatic interface to their routers and switches was stillborn in 2014, so even if Cisco bought Mist instead of Juniper what are the chances they could integrate it across their product lines? We all know Cisco would have to buy a Mist, not for the AI but the understanding of the business problems and how to solve them that occur beyond speeds and feeds.

All we hear inside of Cisco is the latest version of B-U-L-L_$h!t bingo. It's unthinkable how many of our directors, VPs and managers are all tech-ignorant. Where did they find these hordes of deadbeats? At best they are marketing people. Someone mentioned the SSED in the UKI. He is a prime example of that. A total pretender who just spews around the latest buz words, playes politics and does the LinkedIn dance. He absolutely has had nothing ever to contribute towards customers, busimess or credibility towards his own team members. All his management reports are, with pershaps one or two exceptions, exactly the same.

Time to drain the swamp and salvage whatever little talent there is left after the political leaders have culled everyone to save their own paypackage.

Totally agree with Chambo. HPE purchased Cray supercomputers , are working on AI for the last decade , publishing research, winning awards at NeuroIPS and other conferences and getting government contracts via the National labs in prestigious projects. While Cisco is playing the s-u-ck up game while the “leaders” try to get promoted, indulge in musical chairs, and finally having realised that AI is the business, all they have achieved is a bunch of tech-ignorant directors and VPs start the “AI” chant on LinkedIn hoping to get some attention. And no Cisco AI solution in existence 10 years after the industry adoption of Ai which started in 2014. The UK SE Supreme Leader spoke at length at his latest rant about AI and Splunk but we all know what hot air is worth - heard a lot of that since 2019.

Cisco should be worry. Together with Juniper and Aruba HPE is the biggest Nerworking vendor.