Inside Cisco: The Real Story of Sustained M&A Growth

According to Cisco CEO and President John Chambers, when a company acquires technology-any technology-they are also acquiring people. In order for an acquisition to succeed, a company not only needs to be careful in the selection process, but also needs to have a culture in place that accepts the acquisition as quickly as possible.

Buying a company is easy. Making a success of that company post-acquisition is something else altogether and often meets with costly failure. No other company has used mergers and acquisitions as a strategic weapon more effectively than Cisco Systems. Throughout its acquisition of over seventy companies, Cisco avoided significant employee turnover and successfully leveraged the acquired firm's products and technologies to enhance Cisco's revenue growth.

In Inside Cisco, Silicon Valley insider Ed Paulson profiles Cisco's growth-by-acquisition strategy and the key people who molded Cisco into a business designed to acquire and assimilate other companies. By providing a behind-the-scenes perspective of its acquisitions, Paulson's investigative analysis of Cisco outlines a strategic and operational M&A framework that can be applied in any industry.