Cloud Computing: When Will Activists Come Calling for Cisco?

Grazed from Bloomberg.  Author:  Katie Benner.

Activist investors — you know, the guys with pitchforks and torches — have attacked enough tech companies recently that both sides have found it more efficient to settle into an uneasy co-existence: Corporate watchdogs and businesses in transition, or, depending on whom you ask, carpetbaggers and prey.

Activists are pretty open about the levers they’ll pull to make a stock move higher. They’ll fight for goals that include some combination of new management, stock buybacks, dividends and divestitures. Companies saddled with entrenched leadership and a slew of poorly-paired businesses under a single corporate umbrella — but sitting atop piles of cash — have spent the last few quarters pow-wowing with lawyers, crisis PR firms and consultants to prepare for activist broadsides…


So I was surprised when Cisco’s chief executive, John Chambers, told a room full of Bloomberg editors and writers in New York that he and his company have had “no conversations with activist shareholders.” He added in his fast-paced, southern drawl, “No one in their right minds would go after Cisco.”…

Read more form the source @  http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-02-20/will-activists-come-for-john-chambers-and-cisco-