SAN FRANCISCO (www.redherring.com) - During a recent interview with Redherring.com, former Cisco Systems executive Don Listwin, who's now the new boss over at the new entity formed by the Phone.com / Software.com merger, said that even Cisco wasn't a fast-paced enough place for him.
"On the Cisco side, I wasn't learning as much as I wanted to at the time, " Mr. Listwin said. Mr. Listwin commented that his next career goal was to be a CEO. "That would have taken a substantial amount of time at Cisco," he said.
"This [his Phone.com/Software.com job] was a great opportunity," he said, noting the positive side of joining a firm without as much of an established history as Cisco. "This is a company that is just riding what I think is the next wave -- the convergence of the Internet and the wireless revolution."
Mr. Listwin was also asked about whether he knew what his ex-colleague Mario Mazzola would be doing at Cisco now that Mr. Mazzola isn't retiring. "Mario is a brilliant engineering leader, and Cisco shareholders should be thrilled that he's sticking around to work on new technologies."
What technologies, pray tell? Mr. Listwin decided to change the subject.
Take it back
Press releases announcing that two companies are working together are generally suspect -- they're usually nothing more than public posturing. But there is a lesson here for firms who insist that public back-patting is worth the trouble: be careful of your word choice.
Reliacast recently had a word fumble as it attempted to sneak out news that the company was working with Cisco to make products that work with Cisco's IOS software -- the software that runs most of the routers on the Net. Reliacast's technology lets service providers manage, measure, and report on audiences for streaming media events.
Looking to stir up coverage about its new friendship with Cisco, Reliacast distributed a press release via its public relations firm to select members of the media. The problem, however, was that the news release hadn't yet passed muster with Cisco's legal department, which nixed the release. Shortly after it had sent the release out, Reliacast's PR firm and Reliacast executives embarrassingly called everyone they'd contacted and then refused to comment on anything related to its business with Cisco.
 When Cisco executives were called for comment, they routed calls through Cisco PR, who in turn said there was nothing they could (officially) say about the matter.
At issue during the whole mess was the word, "partnership." Reliacast thought it had formed a "partnership" with Cisco, but after what we're sure were some enthusiastic discussions with lawyers, Reliacast found out it was less-formally "collaborating" with Cisco.
As far as either company will say, no money has yet changed hands, and the deal isn't exclusive to either side. Translation: lawyer-approved public posturing is rarely newsworthy, unless there's a better story in the politics behind the "news." Like this one.
Selling Stock
A recent regulatory filing shows that Cisco CFO Larry Carter plans to sell 500,000 shares -- about $31.7 million worth of his stock. The filing, first reported by Reuters, didn't say whether the stock had already been sold.
We tried to reach Mr. Carter for comment, hoping he'd give us some quirky, Steve Ballmer-esque response about Cisco being overvalued or Lucent being a great deal now that its stock has sunk more than 37 percent since a year ago this week.
No such luck. But we'll keep an eye out over the San Francisco Bay in case a newly purchased yacht flying a Cisco flag (or a Jolly Roger) comes cruising by.
No gambling with Lotto technology
The UK's National Lottery Commission recently rejected bids to run the country's lottery from both Virgin boss Richard Branson and Camelot, the firm currently running the lotto.
Mr. Branson was given time to adjust his bid, which he's doing right now. Camelot, according to reports in the Financial Times, was ruled out because of its partnership with U.S. lottery equipment supplier Gtech, a firm that's had technical problems resulting in thousands of mistakes in prize payouts.
Mr. Branson's proposed "People's Lottery" plans to use technology from Cisco and Microsoft, among others. Even for games of chance, people tend to gravitate toward technology firms that evoke a sense of predictability.
Summer bargains?
As of this writing, it's been nearly a month since Cisco's bought any other firms. Any thoughts as to who's going to be next? Drop us a line at ciscowatch@redherring.com.
Discuss networking, communications, and optical technologies and trends in the Network Talk discussion forum, or check out forums, video, and events at the home page. 
|
