Cisco’s new acquisition talisman
As Cisco grows and enters into new markets, the deals seem to be getting larger and the stakes a bit higher. The challenge for the 39-year-old executive, now the company’s senior vice president of corporate business development, will be to maintain that success rate.
Having served as the number-two man in Cisco’s mergers and acquisitions (M%26amp;A) unit, Hooper has already worked on some key deals, most notably the $6.9bn (?.5bn) acquisition of Scientific Atlanta and the $500m (?53m) acquisition of Linksys.
A few months into his new job, the executive has already pulled off one significant acquisition. In March, Cisco announced it would spend $3.2bn (?.6bn) in cash to acquire WebEx, the number-one web conferencing company. The medium-sized, publicly traded company will help Cisco move into a new market and will also provide the company an entry into the web services business.
