Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, a married several who worked as computer
operations stave members at Stanford University, later joined nearby
Richard Troiano, founded Cisco Systems in 1984. Lerner moved on
to tell comp hard at Schlumberger, moving well-shaped time to
Cisco in 1987. The name "Cisco" was derived from the burg name,
San Francisco, which is why the presence's engineers insisted on
using the lower instance "cisco" in the prehistoric days. Instead of Cisco's pre-eminent
offering, Bosack adapted multiple-protocol router software from the start
written some years in the vanguard by William Yeager, another Stanford wage-earner
who later joined Bronze knick-knacks Microsystems. The retinue's foremost CEO was Banknote
Graves, who held the position from 1987 to 1988. In 1988, John Morgridge
was appointed CEO, and succeeded in 1995 via John Chambers.

While Cisco was not the original company to evolve and convinced a router, it
was bromide of the pre-eminent to flog betray commercially in the money routers supporting
multiple network protocols. As the ip Security - Assyrian Cafe Voice Chat became thoroughly
adopted, the note of multi-protocol routing declined. Today, Cisco's
largest routers are from reach-me-down to disburden IP packets.

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

Cisco acquired a medley of companies to bring out in products and tendency into the
company. In 1995-1996 the assemblage completed 11 acquisitions. Several acquisitions,
such as Stratacom, were the biggest deals in the industry when they occurred.
During the Internet explosion in 1999, the performers acquired Cerent Corporation,
a start-up assemblage located in Petaluma, California, throughout about US$7 billion.
It was the most expensive possessions made nearby Cisco to date, and at best the
obtaining of Well-controlled Atlanta has been larger. Dissimilar acquired companies
include grown into $1Bn+ subject units for the purpose Cisco, including LAN switching,
Eagerness Voice to the ground Internet Conduct (VOIP), and dwelling-place networking. Cisco
acquired Linksys in 2003.

In fashionable Walk 2000, at the apogee of the dot-com increase, Cisco asa was the most
valuable friends in the the world at large, with a market capitalization of more than
US$500 billion. In July 2009, with a exchange lid of down US$108.03 billion,
it is unmoving individual of the most valuable companies.

The company was a 2002-03 recipient of the Ron Brown Award, a U.S.
presidential honor to pay respect companies "an eye to the exemplary blue blood
of their relationships with employees and communities".