Cisco Chooses India For Global Center

Cisco is making a big investment in India, having already announced a $1.1 billion plan last October, and yesterday saying India will be the site for its globalization center, or effectively a second global headquarters. Cisco also said it plans a manufacturing pilot facility in Chennai, in addition to expanding its presence in Bangalore. It expects to triple its workforce over 3-5 years to 6,000, and has allocated and/or deployed tens of millions of dollars for R&D activities, facilities and venture capital. Cisco CEO John Chambers commented, "Cisco chose India ... because India has a highly skilled work force, supportive government, innovative customers and world-class partners that already have global capabilities." Last year Cisco's revenue from India totaled $750m (or about 2.5% of its ~$30b) and Chambers said he expects it increase to 5% of global sales in 3-5 years. While services outsourcing has attracted many overseas firms, Cisco also sees a big opportunity in India's strong economic growth and rising middle-class.
• Sources: Press release [I, II], Newsday-AP,
• Related commentary: Cisco To Buyback Additional $7 Billion In Stock, Cisco Shares Rise on Strong F1Q07 Profit Report, Cisco: Catalysts That Make it a Buy, Conference call transcript: Cisco F1Q07
• Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Cisco (CSCO). ETFs: iShares Goldman Sachs Networking Index Fund (IGN), Internet Architecture HOLDRs (IAH), iShares S&P Global Technology (IXN)

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