Cisco's latest set of financial results show that businesses still have a strong appetite for communications technology.
The networking giant reported sales for the period ending 29 July of $7.98bn, up from the $6.6bn reported for 2005's fourth quarter. Sales for the financial year were also up from $24.8 billion to a much healthier $28.5 billion. Net income was $1.5 billion and $5.6 billion for the quarter and year-end respectively.
Against the backdrop of industry doom and gloom, analysts weren't expecting that great a quarter from the networking giant. But the results, released yesterday, show the market is still relatively healthy.
"These record results for Q4 are due in part to our successful implementation of our strategy given our vision of how the communications and IT industry would evolve," said Cisco's chief executive John Chambers.
"As intelligence moves throughout the network, the network is becoming the platform that enables most forms of communications and IT. Our business and technology architectural approach to this evolution is gaining both market share results and share of total customer spend."
Elevated by the upbeat results, Chambers was buoyant about Cisco's financial future and has set some stiff targets.
"In terms of revenue guidance for the upcoming fiscal 2007, including our usual caveats discussed in prior calls, we project year-over-year revenue growth of approximately 15 to 20 per cent and Cisco stand-alone revenue growth of 10 to 15 per cent, which is consistent with our prior long-term guidance," he said.
