Cisco faces sales slump

While other companies were beginning to feel the recession's squeeze last year, networking giant Cisco remained relatively unscathed for months, writes Forbes.

But now, as some bruised tech giants like Intel and IBM are pointing to a tentative bottom in the troubled tech market, Cisco may still be trying to slow its freefall.

Analysts expect the networking equipment vendor to report fiscal third-quarter earnings of 24c a share, compared with 38c per share on a non-generally-accepted-accounting-principles basis in the same quarter a year ago.

Telecom gear maker Nokia Siemens Networks has introduced the latest version of its HiT7080, identified 4.2, according to TelecomTiger.

The latest addition, a high capacity and multi-service optical network platform, is set to help operators cut costs in their space and energy, as global data traffic readies to increase 100-fold by 2015.

“As they gear-up to cope with the 100-fold growth in global data traffic we expect to see between now and 2015, our customers are demanding a platform which provides the opportunity to evolve towards more efficient, packet networking of converging fixed and mobile networks,” said Mikko Lavanti, head of Nokia Siemens Networks' business line Next Generation Metro.

Network components maker Emulex has rejected an unsolicited buyout bid by chip maker Broadcom, saying the all-cash offer undervalued the company and didn't take into consideration its future earning potential in the Ethernet market, states Computerworld.

Broadcom offered $9.25 per share, or about $764 million in cash, for Emulex, which reported about $488 million in sales last year. Upon news of the offer, Emulex's stock increased 2.6% to a high of $10.69 per share on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Emulex chief operating officer Jeff Benck, in an interview with Computerworld, said the takeover bid "had a hostile element to it”.