Cisco will not merge with E///. They are flogging a dead horse. 5g pricing will be 1/2 of 4g & upgrades and licensing revenues will never backfill HW based revenues they used to enjoy. Their sales and swedished based business units are vapid and are devoid of critical thinking or strategic thought. The analysts that pimp the 5g revenue bump are equally stupid.
The only things by valuable at E/// is their services capabilities but even that is low margin, albeit, better than anything Cisco could touch or do. We shall see what happens. At least the two aging companies are trying to do something in the face of competition from Huawie, NokiaTel and others. Fact is, telecoms and datacoms is a shxt investment with zero-sum returns.