I'm an xNDS and xCisco employee. I think Abe is a great technologist, businessman and manager, who would indeed like to bring some cool stuff to the market. And he's far better than the raft of incompetents who have managed the xNDS business so poorly over the last six years.
But we need to remember that Abe's marching orders will (once again) be issued by Permira. And Permira is a private equity firm whose job is to make lots of money as quickly as possible. Just like they did with NDS the first time around.
If you want to put on the rose-colored glasses, you would do well by reading the Cisco CEO's statement: "We are proud of our innovation in video and the customer momentum that the Service Provider Video group has built". That's a thinly veiled way to spin the loss of around $4B dollars with very little to show for it. (Then again, Chuck can blame his predecessor for the acquisition.)
Original poster is @SXMo2co-1tju, well said.