What is the verdict on Cisco (CSCO)?
Cisco seems to have hurt more than most tech stocks between the trade war and COVID-19 outbreak. Yet you'd think its products (especially videoconferencing-related, but also 5G rollout) would be more in demand than ever. See the arstechnica article slashdotted yesterday:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/03/cisco-pitches-in-to-coronavirus-relief-efforts-by-offering-free-webex/
Any insights on why to be more bearish than usual on this and other network-related tech?
Disclosure: I have a small position (<$2k) in this company.
Thanks for perspective!
Posted Mar 5, 2020, 3:02 PM UTC
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I don’t think Webex is a viable product in this day and age. Too many deployment and reliability problems. Can’t really compete with modern solutions, namely Zoom.
I’m not familiar with Cisco’s 5G offering, but that probably isn’t what investors are looking at in the context of COVID-19.
Funny you mention that - my company uses zoom and it’s great. I had to use webex yesterday for a client and it was so much worse.
Yep, seeing a lot of anecdotal evidence like that myself. Large enterprises being frustrated by webex, some subsequently moving to zoom.
And from the other end, zoom is reporting a ton of new customers, alebit most on the free tier, so not much financial upside yet.
Hah! I went from one company using WebEx to another using Skype... it's all relative. But you're right, having *a* solution for videoconferencing doesn't necessarily translate into revenue.
Switches will always be in demand, though.
meh you should see the tragedy that is slack.. yet it's super popular in the UK for some reason.