Cisco CEO Upbeat Over Network Sales

Brisk security, wireless LAN and IP telephony gear sales drove Cisco Systems to a strong third-quarter financial results, the company said Tuesday.

“We continue to believe we have uniquely position Cisco as the recovery continues to gain momentum on a global basis,” John Chambers, president and CEO of the San Jose, Calif., network equipment giant, said during a conference call to investors and analysts.

Cisco posted $5.6 billion in revenues for the quarter, compared to $4.6 billion during the same period last year. Pro forma earnings were $1.4 billion, or 19 cents per share, up from $1.1 billion, or 15 cents per share, for the third quarter of 2003.

Chambers is generally optimistic about the industry outlook. He noted that in what is usually a seasonally slow quarter, U.S. enterprise and commercial accounts showed good growth over the second quarter.

Revenues for Linksys, Cisco’s home networking unit, were $174 million for the third quarter, up approximately 5 percent over the previous quarter.

During the three-month period, the company also completed the acquisitions of Riverhead Networks and Twingo Systems for $36 million and $5 million, respectively.

Another key to Cisco’s success was the number of partnerships it struck with big-name IT firms. For example, its recent collaboration with IBM on data center offerings.

Other new alliances were cemented with mobile phone specialist Ericsson , telecom equipment maker Lucent and software leader Microsoft .