Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, a married a handful of who worked as computer
operations shaft members at Stanford University, later joined by
Richard Troiano, founded Cisco Systems in 1984. Lerner moved on
to govern computer software at Schlumberger, moving entire yet to
Cisco in 1987. The pre-eminence "Cisco" was derived from the see name,
San Francisco, which is why the assemblage's engineers insisted on
using the put down case "cisco" in the prehistoric days. As a service to Cisco's pre-eminent
product, Bosack adapted multiple-protocol router software from the start
written some years before nearby William Yeager, another Stanford employee
who later joined Bronze knick-knacks Microsystems. The company's beginning CEO was Bill
Graves, who held the placement from 1987 to 1988. In 1988, John Morgridge
was appointed CEO, and succeeded in 1995 by John Chambers.

While Cisco was not the first company to expose and give away a router, it
was one of the sooner to flog betray commercially in the money routers supporting
multiple network protocols. As the Internet Protocol Manual became thoroughly
adopted, the importance of multi-protocol routing declined. Today, Cisco's
largest routers are first of all reach-me-down to deliver IP packets.

On February 16 1990, the retinue went societal (with a merchandise capitalization
of $224 million) and was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. On August 28, 1990,
Lerner was fired; upon hearing the announcement, Bosack resigned to show his support for her.
Bosack and his the missis walked away from Cisco with $170 million, 70% of which was
committed to charities. The two later divorced.

Cisco acquired a variety of companies to disgorge in products and ingenuity into the
company. In 1995-1996 the company completed 11 acquisitions. Divers acquisitions,
such as Stratacom, were the biggest deals in the effort when they occurred.
During the Internet prosperity in 1999, the company acquired Cerent Corporation,
a start-up society located in Petaluma, California, for on every side US$7 billion.
It was the most high-priced acquirement made at hand Cisco to boy, and only the
obtaining of Precise Atlanta has been larger. A number of acquired companies
get grown into $1Bn+ province units after Cisco, including LAN switching,
Purpose Voice to the ground Internet Etiquette (VOIP), and dwelling-place networking. Cisco
acquired Linksys in 2003.

In dilatory Walk 2000, at the crest of the dot-com bang, Cisco ios was the most
valuable company in the existence, with a superstore capitalization of more than
US$500 billion. In July 2009, with a exchange cap of about US$108.03 billion,
it is unmoving individual of the most valuable companies.

The group was a 2002-03 receiver of the Ron Brown Present, a U.S.
presidential honor to pay respect companies "for the exemplary blue blood
of their relationships with employees and communities".