Just my opinion but I think the amount of acquisitions Cisco takes part in - most recently Splunk - makes it hard for Cisco to deliver continuously. Why can't we just stop acquiring and focus on the talent retention we have?
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Splunk acquisition is very special because of its size in $$ and its number of employees and the fact that they make a loss and contribute negatively to earnings-per-share. Very special. Do the maths.
That’s exactly what happened in our acquisition. Resources were spent on integration with Cisco systems and at the expense of growth. No growth, less money came in.
There are a variety of issues here. Cisco really hasn't proven its ability to innovate, acquisitions are the fastest way to fill technical and/or product gaps. Additionally, Cisco has been sitting on cash, and large acquisitions of companies with sizable revenue, that's basically the entirely of growth in many areas. Security for example, Duo and Umbrella combined are like half the business.
The issue Cisco has is that they acquire, then they lock up the founders/key individuals for 3 or so years with handcuffs, but the politics put on these acquired companies drive out all the key players. The innovation stalls, the Cisco field loses interest in the tech, some new shiny object comes and the acquired technologies just die off (look again at Duo and Umbrella).
Overwhelming majority of engineering work for acquired companies changes gears from core product development to trying to integrate into the Cisco megaverse (getting on price list, integrating with various Cisco systems, etc.). These are huge tasks that take product engineers off of product and into internal development. It's not shocking these companies just completely die ~5 years after acquisition.
Why can't we just stop acquiring and focus on the talent retention we have?
Easier to buy innovation than innovate.
The silos su-k on their own and have many little silos. Did the product first then worry about portfolio integration.
Invention and Innovation has long since left the halls of Cisco. Once ELT stopped investing in the people and became a M&M company, focus has been on purchase innovation and spend two years trying to assimilate it into the portfolio. Bringing in J2 to consolidate this dysfunctional set of siloed products, will be yet another waste of time and money! Over time this lack of focus and investment will lead to a buy out or acquisition of Cisco.
Because we can invent anything of our own.