As Cisco Systems Inc. held its WebexOne conference this week in San Diego, to no one’s shock the theme of the 2025 event was artificial intelligence — and, of all the markets Cisco plays in, the ones Webex addresses have the most direct end user impact. “We are squarely in the next era of AI, where we are moving from chat bots that answer questions to agents that are going to conduct tasks and jobs almost fully autonomously on our behalf,” said Cisco Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel.
Cisco Systems Inc. provided positive numbers in its fiscal fourth-quarter results Wednesday, and there’s a story behind those numbers. The networking giant posted a modest revenue beat of $13.64 billion, $100 million more than consensus estimates. Gross margin, boosted by the acquisition of Splunk Inc., came in at a whopping 67.5%, the highest number for Cisco in 20 years. Product order growth rose 14% year over year, 6% excluding Splunk.
It was an interesting year for the world’s largest networking vendor. Cisco Systems Inc. put up record revenue and earnings despite a highly volatile macro environment affected by wars, social issues, inflation, rising interest rates and the like. The company also made the biggest acquisition in its history in September when it announced the purchase of Splunk.
It has been a busy few days this week at WebexOne in Anaheim, where Cisco Systems Inc. revealed a number of new products and solutions for its conferencing and collaboration unit, including devices powered by Nvidia Corp.’s artificial intelligence engine.
At the end of last month, Cisco Systems Inc. invited a small group of analysts to tour its facilities in Oslo, Norway, the home of the Cisco team responsible for its device portfolio — aka “Video Valley” — primarily used with Webex software.