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Says the mouse to the elephant: I'm going to kill you!
After the rise of Cisco forced Alcatel and Lucent into an uneasy merger, the two are now vowing to kill the monster that killed it.
Alcatel and Lucent is a merger where 1+1=1. Scale is the only benefit, and such mergers have a horrible track record by destroying customer and shareholder value.
But we have yet to meet the first company that simply decides to turn off its lights and disappear. Instead you need a fancy marketing campaign with lots of drum rolls and waving feathers.
Not that Cisco isn't vulnerable. The networking giant is raking in record profit margins on its core routing and switching business, while investing billions in emerging markets such as home entertainment and $280,000 telepresence systems (two or more required).
But the way to beat Cisco is by out-innovating them rather than claiming that your boxes works slightly better than your competitors. It's the difference between showing vision and faking it.
All bark and no bite?



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