Cisco Goes to Norway

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Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) has always been hungry for acquisitions. We all knew there would be another big buyout coming soon. But I didn't see this particular $3 billion acquisition coming.

The latest addition to Cisco's stable of acquired businesses is Norwegian teleconference expert Tandberg. This Tandberg is related to, but not to be confused with, Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERIC) subsidiary Tandberg TV. The Ericsson-owned business sells digital video equipment to broadcasters like Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA). The Tandberg that Cisco is buying doesn't do TV infrastructure, but is a market leader in TelePresence and video conferencing.

TelePresence is a longtime focus from Cisco as well, and Tandberg's low-to-high-end conferencing solutions will dovetail perfectly with Cisco's existing TelePresence products and networking expertise. These video conferencing solutions also make sense together with Cisco's last major buyout, the $3.2 billion grab for online collaboration specialist WebEx; video conferencing and collaboration technologies both enable new, highly efficient ways of doing business on a global scale.

Cisco expects to breeze through regulatory approvals, and Tandberg is getting congratulations on the deal from several major shareholders. Unlike the protracted romance between Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: JAVA) and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), this deal should close right on time in early 2010. Tandberg boasts a 66% operating margin and 10 years of 30% annual revenue growth, so its margins are up to par with the lofty ones Cisco sees in its existing business. Cisco expects Tandberg to add to its earnings in next fiscal year, or possibly even sooner if the integration proceeds smoothly.

Networked collaboration is a market with $34 billion of annual sales potential, according to Cisco CEO John Chambers, and Tandberg gives Cisco another big leg up on competitors like Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ).

This is a smart buy, financed with $3 billion of Cisco cash in foreign banks that due to tax considerations would be expensive to bring back home to the States. Tandberg's technology and Cisco's ginormous scale should put the TelePresence market on a whole new growth trajectory. And all this high-quality video traffic slinging around the world plays right into Cisco's network sales. It all makes sense.

I'm still miffed about the whole "Cisco-branded servers" idea, but you gotta respect Cisco's vision. Few companies make the Internet fly like Cisco does.