Cisco profit dips 27 percent

Cisco Systems, which in recent quarter has proved to be as vulnerable as any other company to economic fluctuations, reported fiscal second quarter earnings late Wednesday afternoon that include a 27 percent decline in net income and a 7.5 percent slide in revenue. Corporate enterprise network spending was responsible for much of the drop, but the company also said that service provider orders during the quarter were down about 20 percent.

Net income for the quarter landed at $1.5 billion, down from $2.1 billion in the fiscal second quarter last year. Quarterly revenue hit $9.1 billion. Despite the drops, Cisco met most analyst estimates. But, the company also said orders during January were down more than earlier in the quarter. At CES 2009 last month, Cisco CEO John Chambers touted the company's entry into the home network market, and in recent years, Cisco has successfully expanded beyond enterprise networks and into the service provider sector. But last quarter's performance may show that there is nowhere to hide in this market. Cisco has been notable among telecom companies recently in that it did not announce job cuts, even as it announced other cost-cutting initiatives, but how long can it hold out?

For more:
- The New York Times has this report [1]