• by Dave Morgan , Featured Contributor, August 9, 2007

Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal ran a great feature on John Chambers and Cisco. The focus of the piece was Chamber's vision that the future of Cisco was not just as a provider of "plumbing" for network communication, its business today, but actually developing and selling many of the devices and services that use networked communication. His vision, apparently, is that someday Cisco could be a major force in consumer electronics.

Wow. That's quite a concept. Are we ready to start thinking about the world's largest provider of network routers the same way that we see Sony, one of the world's largest consumer electronics companies? Is Cisco the next Sony?

I have a different idea. Maybe Cisco is the next Dow Jones.

The Journal article reminded me of some conversations that I had at the Fortune iMeme conference about two months ago. John Chambers was a speaker at the conference and was amazing. He talked about how they were transforming Cisco to not only serve the Web, but leverage Web technologies to improve how they do business. Among other examples, he talked about how Cisco was able to use Web services for internal operations, which played a big part in the company's ability to close its $3 billion-plus acquisition of WebX in only eight days.

A number of us at cocktails that evening speculated about what Cisco might want to buy next. While some thought that it would continue to roll up more network device companies and more network services, several of us speculated about what would happen if Cisco bought business application Web services like Salesforce.com and LinkedIn. What a great way to deepen its position in business enterprises and better leverage its business conference services and emerging business videoconferencing services. Just imagine, you could click on a link in your sales contact database or professional relationship database and launch two-way videoconferencing with a sales prospect or prospective employee. It's a pretty powerful image, and it is certainly consistent with Chamber's very public pronouncements that its high-end videoconferencing initiatives are a critical part of the company's future.

Clearly, Cisco could well become the "media platform" into the workplace. Of course, since most consumer electronics companies are working very hard to get into providing not only the software that runs on their devices, but the content as well -- think Sony, Apple and Microsoft -- why should Cisco stop there? If the company becomes the primary networked video provider for the workplace, why not become the major media provider for the workplace? Isn't that what Bloomberg has become for many businesses, on the backs of its trading terminals?

It's an interesting image: "Today's Stock Report from Cisco" or "Improve Your Interviewing Techniques, brought to you by Cisco." Of course, the company won't need to build it. It's great at acquisitions. Maybe Cisco will buy CNBC, now that Fox and Murdoch and newly acquired Down Jones are breathing down its neck. In fact, why stop there. Doesn't Cisco also own Scientific Atlanta -- the largest provider of TV set-top boxes in the U.S., -- and Linksys -- the largest provider of home WiFi devices in the U.S.? Through technology alone, Cisco could become the "media platform" of the home as well. All it needs now is content.

Are we ready for the "Cisco Evening News with Katie Couric"?