Wall Street pundits on Cisco

It is too big to be taken over – Spin off is the way to go –

Chambers should start by immediately selling off some of his consumer businesses, which represent 10% of all its sales. They simply don't make sense for a company's whose main business is computer switching and other networking functions.

Citigroup's John Slack, in a note last week reiterating a Hold rating on the stock, suggested that selling off all of Cisco's consumer businesses, including its Linksys line of low-cost routers, would boost the remaining revenue growth rate by almost one percentage point and lift operating profit by one to two points.

Chambers should also consider retrenching from some of the other 30 new businesses Cisco has entered in recent years, said Joanna Makris, an analyst at Mizuho Securities USA Inc. in New York. These include niche products that help companies manage data centers -- areas led by Riverbed Technology Inc.,  F5 Networks Inc.  and Aruba Networks Inc.

“Cisco has to give up the ghost at this point. They’ve lost so much share and thought leadership. It’s too late to out-innovate other companies in these areas.”

-Cheers