Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, a married yoke who worked as computer
operations shaft members at Stanford University, later joined before
Richard Troiano, founded Cisco Systems in 1984. Lerner moved on
to command java hard at Schlumberger, exciting entire in days of yore to
Cisco in 1987. The pre-eminence "Cisco" was derived from the burg luminary,
San Francisco, which is why the assemblage's engineers insisted on
using the discredit case "cisco" in the prehistoric days. Instead of Cisco's initial
product, Bosack adapted multiple-protocol router software originally
written some years before nearby William Yeager, another Stanford hand
who later joined Brown Microsystems. The retinue's beginning CEO was Banknote
Graves, who held the stance from 1987 to 1988. In 1988, John Morgridge
was appointed CEO, and succeeded in 1995 via John Chambers.

While Cisco was not the beginning party to evolve and push a router, it
was identical of the oldest to retail commercially famous routers supporting
multiple network protocols. As the ip Safe became everywhere
adopted, the account of multi-protocol routing declined. Today, Cisco's
largest routers are first of all reach-me-down to disburden IP packets.

On February 16 1990, the assemblage went public (with a merchandise capitalization
of $224 million) and was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. On August 28, 1990,
Lerner was fired; upon hearing the announcement, Bosack resigned to express his support in compensation her.
Bosack and his partner walked away from Cisco with $170 million, 70% of which was
committed to charities. The two later divorced.

Cisco acquired a variety of companies to disgorge in products and tendency into the
company. In 1995-1996 the company completed 11 acquisitions. Several acquisitions,
such as Stratacom, were the biggest deals in the production when they occurred.
During the Internet prosperity in 1999, the friends acquired Cerent Corporation,
a start-up company located in Petaluma, California, in the course of fro US$7 billion.
It was the most high-priced procurement made at hand Cisco to boy, and only the
purchase of Well-controlled Atlanta has been larger. A number of acquired companies
include grown into $1Bn+ province units in the service of Cisco, including LAN switching,
Enterprise Turn over Internet Conduct (VOIP), and home networking. Cisco
acquired Linksys in 2003.

In fashionable March 2000, at the apex of the dot-com bang, Cisco guide was the most
valuable friends in the world, with a peddle capitalization of more than
US$500 billion. In July 2009, with a vend cover humbly of on touching US$108.03 billion,
it is restful united of the most valuable companies.

The group was a 2002-03 receiver of the Ron Brown Present, a U.S.
presidential honor to recognize companies "in search the outstanding property
of their relationships with employees and communities".