The restructuring of networking vendor Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) showed some early signs of fruit this week as the company reported an 18 per cent improvement in earnings in its first fiscal quarter, with US$2.1 billion in net income on sales of US$11.9 billion.
“We delivered record results this quarter — with revenue growth of six per cent and strong earnings per share growth — demonstrating our vision and strategy are working,” CEO John Chambers said in a statement. “Our innovation engine, operational discipline and on-going evolution are enabling us to differentiate in the market.”
However, Brian Bloom of IT World Canada reported that the next quarter may see Cisco’s growth taper off, due in part to weakness in the European market.
Things are looking up in Canada, though. In an interview on CNBC to discuss the earnings, Chambers singled-out the Canadian market as an example of a market welcoming to foreign investment.
“I’ve just met with the leadership up in Canada. They’re the easiest place in the world to do business. We’re going to invest in Canada and Ottawa where you have complete cooperation with the provincial leadership and the national leadership,” said Chambers. “They make it easy to do business there and invest there. We need to learn from them in terms of what we need to do in terms of investing.”