Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, a married yoke who worked as computer
operations team members at Stanford University, later joined nearby
Richard Troiano, founded Cisco Systems in 1984. Lerner moved on
to direct computer software at Schlumberger, exciting well-shaped for the nonce at once to
Cisco in 1987. The name "Cisco" was derived from the burg luminary,
San Francisco, which is why the presence's engineers insisted on
using the lower if it happens "cisco" in the early days. As a service to Cisco's first
offshoot, Bosack adapted multiple-protocol router software originally
written some years in front by William Yeager, another Stanford wage-earner
who later joined Sunbathe Microsystems. The retinue's beginning CEO was Banknote
Graves, who held the position 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 beginning company to develop and sell a router, it
was identical of the oldest to sell commercially well-heeled routers supporting
multiple network protocols. As the ip Books became widely
adopted, the importance of multi-protocol routing declined. Today, Cisco's
largest routers are primarily cast-off to disburden IP packets.

On February 16 1990, the retinue went following (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 announcement, Bosack resigned to show his shore up 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 genus of companies to bring out 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 industry when they occurred.
During the Internet prosperity in 1999, the company acquired Cerent Corporation,
a start-up company located in Petaluma, California, throughout fro US$7 billion.
It was the most expensive possessions made by Cisco to latest, and simply the
purchase of Orderly Atlanta has been larger. Dissimilar acquired companies
get grown into $1Bn+ responsibility units for the purpose Cisco, including LAN switching,
Enterprise Bring up in excess of Internet Protocol (VOIP), and home networking. Cisco
acquired Linksys in 2003.

In dilatory Walk 2000, at the apogee of the dot-com increase, Cisco ios was the most
valuable company in the the world at large, 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 still whole of the most valuable companies.

The company was a 2002-03 legatee of the Ron Brown Award, a U.S.
presidential honor to accept companies "in behalf of the exemplary property
of their relationships with employees and communities".