Cisco Systems’ chief executive has announced plans for a company shake-up in the face declining investor confidence. In the e-mailed call to action to Cisco’s 73,000 employees, John Chambers said that while company’s strategy was sound, aspects of its operational execution were not. “We have been slow to make decisions, we have had surprises where we should not, and we have lost the accountability that has been a hallmark of our ability to execute consistently for our customers and our shareholders. That is unacceptable,” he wrote.

Chambers said Cisco would refocus on its core markets in routers and switching, collaboration, datacentre virtualisation and video. Investors are concerned about Cisco’s perceived over-expansion into new and low-margin businesses such as consumer products. Investors are also concerned that competitors such as HP, Oracle, Juniper Networks and Aruba Networks and China’s equipment maker Huawei Technologies are starting to eat into Cisco’s core switch and router markets.

While the Nasdaq Composite has risen 15% in the past year, Cisco’s share price has fallen 35% as the company missed sales targets and profits declined. Chambers did not detail what form the shake-up will take, but analysts say it is likely that Cisco is preparing to cut back in consumer products after years of expansion.

Sounds like a great time to be negotiating aggressive discounts from Cisco!

Hewlett-Packard has advised resellers and customers with immediate project requirements to seek alternatives to its c-Class blade system based on Cisco switches as component shortages have brought supply to a standstill. The issue stems from the difficulties encountered by HP’s one-time partner Cisco, which has been struggling to supply the channel with certain enterprise kit. HP is working closely with Cisco to resolve the problem but could offer no timeframe for the situation to improve. “At the present no supply is available to clear the current backlog or complete any new orders. Customers who have immediate project requirements should consider alternatives,” said an HP spokesman.

According to US news agencies, takeover talks have broken down between Sun Microsystems and IBM,  with the two companies failing to agree on a price and other terms of an acquisition. Sun’s negotiators have apparently terminated IBM’s exclusivity agreement, opening the company up to merger talks with other parties. Analysts have suggested Japanese server maker Fujistu could make a move, being the largest OEM of Sun’s Solaris operating system. Other potential buyers could include Hewlett-Packard, Cisco or even Dell. Whatever the eventual outcome, Sun finds itself in desperate straits, having lost nearly $1.9 billion in its last two quarters and so far this year cutting headcount by 2,800 employees as it tries to pare down overheads to balance its declining sales revenue. With this developing situation, anyone looking to buy Sun in the next few weeks and months should be careful about what kind of deal they enter into. They should also be wary of any long term contractual commitments that may need to be honoured by any organisation that ends up buying Sun.

One of Silver Bullet Associates’ clients was asking me the other day whether I knew of any readily available sources of finance that could help them fund some business critical IT projects. When I suggested he ask his IT vendors to help fund things, he looked at me as if I had grown a second head. So I explained to him that the big IT companies have always hoarded cash on a huge scale. Today, Cisco is sitting on $26bn in cash and short term investments while Microsoft has over $20bn and Oracle has over $10bn in their respective current accounts. In an era when capital markets have dried up and banks are loathe to lend, businesses are finding it hard to fund initiatives. IT vendors are acutely aware of this, and some of them are starting to bankroll their customers purchases. They may not be drawing on their cash mountains directly, but they are using their AAA credit status to enable customers to defer payments or spread payments over 2 or 3 years at minium or zero cost. In the past few months, we’ve seen Microsoft, HP, SAP and others offer 0% financing to some clients to help them fund new purchases. If you have some IT projects currently on ice which you might be able to defrost with some creative vendor financing, then it’s worth you asking your IT vendors what they can do for you!