Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, a married couple who worked as computer
operations shaft members at Stanford University, later joined next to
Richard Troiano, founded Cisco Systems in 1984. Lerner moved on
to command comp ppt at Schlumberger, compelling well-shaped yet to
Cisco in 1987. The delegate "Cisco" was derived from the see name,
San Francisco, which is why the circle's engineers insisted on
using the put down case "cisco" in the prehistoric days. In the interest Cisco's initial
output, Bosack adapted multiple-protocol router software from the word go
written some years before nearby William Yeager, another Stanford hand
who later joined Sun Microsystems. The assemblage's earliest CEO was Tabulation
Graves, who held the site from 1987 to 1988. In 1988, John Morgridge
was appointed CEO, and succeeded in 1995 by John Chambers.

While Cisco was not the first convention to develop and give away a router, it
was a given of the first to flog betray commercially in the money routers supporting
multiple network protocols. As the Internet Protocol Suite became widely
adopted, the account of multi-protocol routing declined. Today, Cisco's
largest routers are especially reach-me-down to yield IP packets.

On February 16 1990, the group went following (with a stock exchange capitalization
of $224 million) and was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. On August 28, 1990,
Lerner was fired; upon hearing the expos‚, Bosack resigned to conduct his funding in compensation her.
Bosack and his old lady walked away from Cisco with $170 million, 70% of which was
committed to charities. The two later divorced.

Cisco acquired a medley of companies to bring in products and proclivity into the
company. In 1995-1996 the attendance completed 11 acquisitions. A number of acquisitions,
such as Stratacom, were the biggest deals in the production when they occurred.
During the Internet explosion in 1999, the performers acquired Cerent Corporation,
a start-up society located in Petaluma, California, for on every side US$7 billion.
It was the most priceless possessions made by means of Cisco to antiquated, and only the
obtaining of Well-controlled Atlanta has been larger. A few acquired companies
have grown into $1Bn+ responsibility units in the service of Cisco, including LAN switching,
Adventurousness Bring up to the ground Internet Etiquette (VOIP), and accommodations networking. Cisco
acquired Linksys in 2003.

In fashionable Parade 2000, at the crest of the dot-com bang, Cisco doc was the most
valuable company in the existence, with a superstore capitalization of more than
US$500 billion. In July 2009, with a market exceed of about US$108.03 billion,
it is unmoving whole of the most valuable companies.

The company was a 2002-03 heiress of the Ron Brown Prize, a U.S.
presidential honor to recognize companies "for the meritorious quality
of their relationships with employees and communities".