Cisco Aquires SyPixx

illeism writes "Forbes reports that Cisco is getting into the video surveillance business. From the article,"Cisco made the acquisition to capitalize on the trend that has been underway which is moving video surveillance from analog to IP.""

I give this less than a year...

[Anonymous Coward]

before Cisco finds some way to sell some horribly heineous product to the US government that involves this purchase. Since Cisco devices already run 95% of the net's backbone, purchases like this scare me.

I don't like powerful companies who are in bed with the government. I almost wish they were Israeli or Argentinian or something.

That's what Cisco does

[theheff]

Cisco is massive... they buy out their competition, including areas of the market they want to expand in to. That's just how they function. If you can't put out the ideas, heck, buy them. Nothing really new here.

Re:Not surprisingly

[LilGuy]

Indeed. I revel in the idea of never having to worry about crime again. Imagine a world where every criminal act is recorded at multiple angles! Criminals will have no place to hide. We will never have to worry about being mugged at the ATM again, or being raped in the alley way as we walk along the sidewalks. Criminals will be too scared to be criminals and will turn into God fearing human beings again.

Thank you cisco for doing your part!

God bless America!

Re:I'm not sure about this.

[saridder]

Or they've already maxed out the market share in their current area's of competition. They have 80% market share in Routing and Switching, 60% in wireless, 65% in Linksys, they are now #1 in enterprise voice, #1 in director-class storage, etc... Chambers once said that if they tried to get to 100% market share in Routing and Switching and took all their competitors market cap value, Cisco's market cap price would rise a paltry $25b, nothing investors are going to jump at. Plus it would be a dog fight for little profit or $$. So they need new areas to grow.

Bottom line is that Cisco consolidates networks (consolidated the hodge-podge of networks in the 90's - IPX, DECNet, Banyan Vines, SNA, etc) onto IP and is looking to doing the same today (SAN's, Voice Networks, etc). Analog video is just another network out there that can be put onto IP (imagine all the gear in just one high rise in NYC) and you can see where Cisco's going.

Sypixx != Big Brother

[Deton8]

Just so you guys are aware, Sypixx makes CCTV systems which are primarily sold into casinos as part of their government-mandated gaming regulation compliance. They don't seem to sell much if anything to Big Brother type markets.