Cisco’s Chris Young Has Been Given a ‘Blank Check’ But Doesn’t Know What to Do With It

Cisco Systems is  the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate, but lately, Cisco has been experiencing a steady decline in market share, causing executives to rethink how best to turn around the company’s securities business.

The strategy of CEO John Chambers has been to make a series of acquisitions in order to boost the securities business. With that goal in mind, he gave Chris Young, Cisco’s executive for security, a blank check to find and secure acquisitions, but Young seems to be having a bit of trouble, which is causing concern among some analysts.

Reuters reports:

Mike Rothman, analyst and president at security research and advisory firm Securosis, said Cisco was “years behind in terms of a lot of capabilities” and that Young “better get his M&A people in order”.

Cisco is aware of the deficiency and has been actively looking for acquisitions to beef up its network security offerings for some time, three sources familiar with the matter said.

The problem is that Cisco is continually losing ground to younger and more innovative outfits, and needs to bring one of those outfits on board. All in all, Cisco has lost around 10 percent of its market share in network security over the past five years to smaller rivals. It’s Young’s job to fix that by bringing in new blood with fresh ideas, and if he doesn’t manage that, then, it might not bode well for his future at the company.

 

 

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