The 10 Biggest Cisco Stories Of 2009

Cisco made a number of acquisitions in 2009, but perhaps its two most significant were both focused on video. President and CEO John Chambers on Cisco's most recent earnings call described video as the "killer application" for driving collaboration and growth. Based on acquisitions of Tandberg and Pure Digital -- and a slate of new collaboration products debuted this fall -- it's clear he's serious.



In March, Cisco acquired Pure Digital, the maker of the Flip Video camera, for about $590 million. It's a consumer play for Cisco, but given the popularity of both Flip and its newer HD edition, it gives the networking titan leverage in a rapidly growing market. Then, in October, Cisco announced it would seek to acquire Tandberg, the Norwegian video conference vendor. After a lengthy tender offer process that almost saw the $3.4 billion acquisition derailed, Cisco finally gained control of more than 90 percent of Tandberg shares and cleared the way for an acquisition it expects to close in the first half of 2010.



Given that Tandberg had about a 40 percent market share in video conferencing worldwide, the move gives Cisco an instant leg-up against competitors like Polycom and LifeSize, and fills a gap in its portfolio between high-end TelePresence systems and desktop WebEx tools.