Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, a married a handful of who worked as computer
operations stave members at Stanford University, later joined next to
Richard Troiano, founded Cisco Systems in 1984. Lerner moved on
to direct java software at Schlumberger, compelling well-shaped in days of yore to
Cisco in 1987. The big name "Cisco" was derived from the burg high regard,
San Francisco, which is why the circle's engineers insisted on
using the discredit case "cisco" in the prehistoric days. In the interest Cisco's first
output, Bosack adapted multiple-protocol router software originally
written some years in the vanguard by William Yeager, another Stanford worker
who later joined Brown Microsystems. The presence's foremost CEO was Banknote
Graves, who held the site from 1987 to 1988. In 1988, John Morgridge
was appointed CEO, and succeeded in 1995 by way of John Chambers.

While Cisco was not the basic party to develop and sell a router, it
was one of the oldest to peddle commercially well-heeled routers supporting
multiple network protocols. As the Internet Protocol Accountable became thoroughly
adopted, the note of multi-protocol routing declined. Today, Cisco's
largest routers are first of all acclimatized to disburden IP packets.

On February 16 1990, the company went societal (with a merchandise capitalization
of $224 million) and was listed on the Nasdaq house exchange. On August 28, 1990,
Lerner was fired; upon hearing the newscast, Bosack resigned to show his funding for her.
Bosack and his wife 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 ingenuity into the
company. In 1995-1996 the assemblage completed 11 acquisitions. Various acquisitions,
such as Stratacom, were the biggest deals in the effort when they occurred.
During the Internet blast in 1999, the friends acquired Cerent Corporation,
a start-up assemblage located in Petaluma, California, representing about US$7 billion.
It was the most up-market acquisition made at hand Cisco to latest, and at best the
possessions of Well-controlled Atlanta has been larger. A few acquired companies
have grown into $1Bn+ subject units for Cisco, including LAN switching,
Eagerness Utter over Internet Protocol (VOIP), and dwelling-place networking. Cisco
acquired Linksys in 2003.

In dilatory March 2000, at the apogee of the dot-com bang, Cisco asa was the most
valuable gathering in the world, with a superstore capitalization of more than
US$500 billion. In July 2009, with a hawk cap of about US$108.03 billion,
it is pacify one of the most valuable companies.

The group was a 2002-03 heiress of the Ron Brown Present, a U.S.
presidential honor to concede companies "an eye to the outstanding worth
of their relationships with employees and communities".