From: Scott Berry <sjb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: November 18, 2005 8:29:15 AM PST
To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [Dewayne-Net] Cisco Agrees to Buy Scientific-Atlanta
for $6.9 Bln
Having read three distinct stories in the "major" media about this,
I've yet
to see mention of this as anything more than a simple TV play.
Why aren't people talking about this more as Cisco's beachhead into
the Home
Media Hub market? It isn't such a difficult leap to see SetTop Box
= Home
Gateway. They have the in-home networking with Linksys, as well as
the ATAs
and VoIP phones. Plus, this move solidifies existing channels (and
opens
new ones) to move those devices into homes.
Even without WiFi/STB or STB/VoIP type integrations, this seems
like a good
move for Cisco; but I can't imagine they won't try some integration
in the
future to make these boxes more complicated and improve the margins
on them.
In fact, the synergy possibilities are so good I'm surprised a
Lucent or
Nortel didn't do more to keep this out of Cisco's hands. No wonder
Chambers
was willing to break his "no big mergers" rule.
Cisco can't help but tackle the consumer market. Their existing
markets
aren't big enough (and most are shrinking anyway) to sustain a
company this
big with such a large Wall St.-driven growth mandate.
Scott