Cisco Gives Bullish Outlook Helped by New Products, Software
Cisco's sales in its first fiscal quarter outperformed analysts' expectations, and the company gave a bullish forecast for the current three-month period
• The forecast was boosted by corporate spending on network upgrades, Bloomberg reported
• The company reported growth in all its market segments and geographic regions, but it's growth in software and services that's the most important indicator, both for the company's long-term strategy and for Wall Street
• CEO Chuck Robbins is remaking Cisco into a provider of network software and services, aiming to de-emphasize slowing networking hardware sales