"Cisco Systems, Inc.: Acquisition Integration for Manufacturing"

Founded in 1984, Cisco Systems made the Fortune 500 list and surpassed the significant $100 billion mark for market capitalization in 1997. Cisco, whose core technology is routers that allow disparate computer networks to talk to one another, has become the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Acquisitions have been an integral part of Cisco's corporate strategy--one industry analyst estimated that 40% of Cisco's 1997 revenues came from acquired businesses. Cisco undertakes acquisitions to enable it to quickly tap into new market opportunities and offer customers end-to-end networking solutions. The case discusses Cisco's background and founders, its philosophy toward acquisitions, its stringent acquisition criteria, and its well-documented and tested approach to integrating manufacturing processes and organizations. Also describes a recent acquisition and poses the question of how to integrate the acquired company's manufacturing organization.