Cisco Systems' first-quarter revenue has soared 49% to US$3.9 billion, while the networking company's actual net income slipped from that reported a year ago, thanks to acquisition-related costs.
The vendor also announced today that it plans to buy Aironet Wireless Communications, which makes technology for building high-speed wireless LANs (local area networks), for about $800 million in stock.
Cisco attributed its sharp increase in revenue to the Internet's continued strong growth, in a company statement issued today.
"The Internet continues to be a powerful force fueling the global economy," said John Chambers, Cisco's president and chief executive officer, in the statement.
Net income for the quarter ended Oct. 30, 1999, including charges, was $438 million, or 13 cents per share, compared with $512 million, or 15 cents per share, reported for the same period a year ago, Cisco said.
During the first quarter, Cisco completed the acquisitions of Monterey Networks Inc. and MaxComm Technologies Inc. for a combined price of about $590 million. The company took a related charge of approximately 11 cents per share as a write-off of purchased in-process research and development.
Excluding those charges, pro forma net income for the quarter was $837 million or 24 cents per share, compared with pro forma net income of $561 million or 17 cents per share for the year ago quarter, Cisco said.
Analysts had expected the company to profit by 23 cents per share, according to a consensus estimate gathered by First Call Corp., so looking at pro forma net income, Cisco was a penny shy of that prediction.
The $3.9 billion in sales for the quarter compares with sales of $2.6 billion a year ago, Cisco said.
Cisco, in San Jose, California, can be reached at +1-408-526-4000 or at http://www.cisco.com/.