Cisco in China: Approaching cautiously


Venturebeat.com wrote a good piece this morning summarizing Cisco Systems Inc.'s (NASDAQ: CSCO) activities in China. Cisco, which generates about $1 billion in free cash flow per month, is definitely not putting its balance sheet at risk while learning about this huge market.

Venturebeat wrote that according to Cisco VP Ned Hooper, Cisco has already returned a profit on its first $400M batch of venture investments in China beginning in 2001. Now Cisco has started investing from a second batch of funds, although it's too early to tell how these investments are doing. In total, Cisco has invested over $700 million into almost 30 Chinese start-ups, including online gaming company Shanda (NASDAQ: SNDA).

Cisco's most recent investment is $50 million in China Communications Services, a new spin-off from China's state-run telecom. For Cisco, $50 million is purely putting a toe in the water before jumping in.

Expect Cisco to keep a low cost approach to this potentially huge market.
Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-89.2312,801.23
NASDAQ-23.352,903.88
S&P 500-9.311,342.64

Last updated: February 12, 2012: 09:57 PM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

18.875-0.255(-1.33)

Alcoa

10.29-0.35(-3.29)

Apple Inc

493.42+0.25(+0.05)

Google Inc 'A'

605.91-5.55(-0.91)

Bank of America

8.07-0.11(-1.34)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.90-0.06(-0.10)

Exxon Mobil Corp

83.80-1.08(-1.27)

Ford

12.44-0.25(-1.97)

Citigroup

32.925-0.735(-2.18)

IBM

192.42-0.71(-0.37)

Yahoo

16.14+0.14(+0.88)

Starbucks

48.82-0.38(-0.77)

Microsoft

30.495-0.275(-0.89)

Home Depot

45.33+0.06(+0.13)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1329101842124 ms.