cover image INSIDE CISCO: The Real Story of Sustained M&A Growth

INSIDE CISCO: The Real Story of Sustained M&A Growth

Ed Paulson, . . Wiley, $29.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-471-41425-4

Once the gold-plated standard for how to succeed on the Internet, Cisco Systems has since lost some of its luster. But even though the company's stock price has dropped, Paulson (The Technology M&A Guidebook) makes a convincing case for still using Cisco as a model for how other companies can manage their M&A (merger and acquisition) growth. For one, Cisco buys companies not just when it is trying to expand or protect itself against potential competitors, but rather "as an integral part of its system," thus looking ahead for future growth. Indeed, Cisco's acquisitions have been prolific, and the author explains who the company targets for acquisitions and why. Unlike many acquirers, Cisco tries to retain most of the personnel during an acquisition, and Paulson shows how that makes good sense. According to Cisco CEO John Chambers, "If you pay $500,000 to $2 million per person... and you lose 30 to 40 percent of those people in the first two years, you've made a terrible decision." Paulson shows most of Cisco's major acquisitions and the buying price per employee, which is appropriate for a book on M&A's, of course, but he is too meandering to offer specific, helpful information. Those interested in refining their company's M&A strategies won't find too much here to help them; Paulson makes a great case why Cisco is good at what it does, but aphorisms like "[Cisco] listens closely to its customers" are less than effective. Such lines suggest that the book is targeted more at a general business audience, but how many of those readers actually need advice on how to buy companies? (Oct.)