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Cisco
NASDAQ: CSCOSan Jose, US · Founded 1984 · 95,295 employees on LinkedIn · Public · 1 known investors
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Cisco Systems designs and sells networking hardware, software, and services—including routers, switches, and cloud-based applications—to enterprise, service provider, and consumer markets globally.
Also known as ARPT · ArrowPoint Communications · ArrowPoint Communications, Inc.
Founders & leadership
Cisco was founded in 1984 by Sandra Lerner and Leonard Bosack.
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Investors · 1
How we know: Sequoia Capital's portfolio page · the VCSheet dataset · Not right? Tell us
Company profile
researched Aug 2026ArrowPoint Communications, Inc. was a networking equipment company based in Acton, Massachusetts, that developed content switches designed to optimize the delivery of web content. Its products let internet service providers, web hosting companies, e-commerce sites and other operators direct network traffic based on the content being requested, providing what Cisco described as a new level of intelligence for web infrastructure. The company traded publicly on NASDAQ under the ticker ARPT.
ArrowPoint's architecture combined software and hardware to support content-aware features such as URL-based and cookie-based switching, allowing traffic to be steered according to the requested content and the frequency of content requests. After its acquisition by Cisco, the technology was delivered as the Cisco 11000 Series Content Service Switches featuring Web NS software, and the ArrowPoint organization was reconstituted as Cisco's Content Switching Technologies Business Unit within the Service Provider Line of Business.
Founding story
ArrowPoint Communications was founded in 1997.
Business model
ArrowPoint sold content switching hardware and software to internet service providers, web hosting companies and e-commerce operators; following the acquisition its products were sold by Cisco as the 11000 Series Content Service Switches.
Latest developments
The acquisition by Cisco was completed on June 23, 2000, and ArrowPoint became the Content Switching Technologies Business Unit within Cisco's Service Provider Line of Business.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
ArrowPoint was described as a leading provider of content switches, competing with Alteon WebSystems and F5 Networks in the web switching market, which the Internet Research Group projected would grow from $260 million in 1999 to $828 million by 2002. Cisco, which previously offered its Local Director device, acquired ArrowPoint to strengthen its web traffic management capabilities; competitors Extreme Networks, 3Com and Cabletron Systems instead partnered with F5.
Its architecture supported a full set of content-aware switching features, including URL- and cookie-based traffic direction, which Cisco cited as providing a feature-rich and flexible content switching platform.
Technology
A combined software and hardware switching architecture supporting content-aware features including URL- and cookie-based switching, enabling traffic to be directed on the basis of the content requested and the frequency of requests. The software capabilities were described as integrable with existing Cisco products and complementary to the Cisco Catalyst multilayer switching family.
Go-to-market
Internet service providers, web hosting companies, e-commerce websites, and emerging categories of application service providers, application infrastructure providers and "dot com" companies.
Geography
Headquartered in Acton, Massachusetts; the acquiring company, Cisco Systems, is based in San Jose, California.
History
Founded in 1997 in Acton, Massachusetts, ArrowPoint held an initial public offering on March 31, 2000 that gave it a market value of roughly $1 billion at its opening price, with shares reaching $140 on the first day of trading before falling to $59.50 two weeks later. According to ArrowPoint president Louis Volpe, Cisco had approached the company about a week before the offering, but ArrowPoint executives wanted the IPO to proceed first. On May 5, 2000, Cisco announced a definitive agreement to acquire the company in a stock exchange valued at about $5.7 billion, and the acquisition closed on June 23, 2000. At the time of the announcement the company had 337 employees, who were to be led by ArrowPoint CEO Cheng Wu within Cisco's Public Carrier IP Group under Senior Vice President Kevin Kennedy.
Risks & controversies
After ArrowPoint's share price rose 27 percent the day before the acquisition was announced, the Securities Exchange Commission opened an investigation into possible insider trading.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Acquisitions · 24
Early investors' stakes continue via these dealsVideo platform company acquired by Cisco Systems.
Accedian provides network and service assurance software that uses active testing, performance monitoring, and AI-powered analytics to give telecom operators real-time visibility into network performance and fault management. Its platform supports SLA monitoring, predictive analytics, closed-loop automation, and customer-facing service portals.
Airespace designed enterprise wireless LAN systems, including WLAN controllers, access points, and management/security software. It helped develop the lightweight access point architecture that led to the CAPWAP protocol.
Armorblox provides email security services, including customer support for handling security issues for its business customers. The available page only covers technical support terms and does not detail the core product.
ArrowPoint Communications made content switches—networking hardware/software appliances using URL- and cookie-based intelligence to optimize and load-balance web content delivery for ISPs and hosting companies.
Cliqr Technologies developed a hybrid cloud management platform, CloudCenter, that let enterprises model, deploy, and manage applications across data centers and public/private clouds.
ISDN router technology for data transmission
Dashbase built log analytics and observability software for real-time communications infrastructure, helping VoIP and telecom providers troubleshoot chat, video, and voice services using Kubernetes-based data collection.
AI debugging and observability platform offering evaluation, error analysis, and tracing for AI models.
GeoTel Communications Corp developed call-routing telecommunications software that linked enterprise data systems with voice infrastructure like PBXs to intelligently route calls for corporate call centers.
Growth Networks was a Mountain View, California semiconductor startup founded in 1998 that designed "Internet Switching Fabric" chips used inside high-end IP routers and ATM switches.
IPCell Technologies developed software for broadband access networks combining IP and telephony services, an early VoIP infrastructure provider based in Richardson, Texas.
Kalpana was a Sunnyvale, California startup that invented the first multiport Ethernet switch in 1990, pioneering cut-through switching and full-duplex Ethernet for local-area networks.
Lancope developed network behavior analytics software, notably the StealthWatch System, which used flow data from routers and switches to monitor network performance and detect security threats. Founded in 2000 in Alpharetta, Georgia, it served financial, healthcare, government, and academic clients.
Latitude Communications was a Santa Clara, California company founded in 1993 that developed and hosted MeetingPlace, an integrated voice and web conferencing system for enterprises.
Lightspeed International developed voice protocol conversion and intelligent call control software enabling interoperability among diverse voice signaling systems.
Memoir Systems developed patented "Algorithmic Memory" semiconductor IP and tools that boosted memory performance in ASICs for programmable network switches.
Metacloud was a Pasadena, California startup that built and remotely operated private cloud infrastructure for enterprises using an OpenStack-as-a-service model.
NuSpeed Internet Systems was a Maple Grove, MN networking startup that developed early storage-over-IP (iSCSI) technology to connect storage-area networks over standard IP networks.
Email and collaboration infrastructure for users and IT departments
Socio was an Indiana-based startup founded in 2015 that built a mobile app for managing and networking at in-person, virtual, and hybrid events.
TANDBERG was a Norway/New York-based company that designed and marketed videoconferencing and telepresence systems, becoming the world's largest videoconferencing equipment provider.
Unified malware analysis and threat intelligence platform. Acquired by Cisco.
Viptela was a San Jose-based startup that developed cloud-delivered software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN) technology for enterprises to centrally manage their WAN connections.
Timeline · 4
launches, deals, and filingsCisco announced completion of the ArrowPoint acquisition. The ArrowPoint organization became the Content Switching Technologies Business Unit within Cisco's Service Provider Line of Business, delivering the Cisco 11000 Series Content Service Switches with Web NS software.
Cisco agreed to exchange 2.1218 shares of Cisco common stock for every outstanding share and option of ArrowPoint Communications (NASDAQ: ARPT); based on Cisco's May 4, 2000 closing price of $63 5/8, the transaction was valued at approximately $5.7 billion. The deal was structured as a pooling of interests and was expected to close in the fourth quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2000, subject to Hart-Scott-Rodino clearance and ArrowPoint shareholder approval.
$5.7B source ↗
ArrowPoint held a public offering on March 31 that gave the company a market value of about $1 billion based on its opening stock price. Shares reached $140 on the first day of trading before falling to $59.50 two weeks later.
After ArrowPoint's stock jumped 27 percent the day before the acquisition was announced, following an analyst forecast of revenue growth, the Securities Exchange Commission opened an investigation into possible insider trading.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- ArrowPointcisco.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Cisco do?
- ArrowPoint Communications built content switches for optimizing web content delivery; acquired by Cisco Systems in 2000.
- Who founded Cisco?
- Cisco was founded by Sandra Lerner, Leonard Bosack in 1984.
- Who are Cisco's investors?
- Cisco's investors include Sequoia Capital.
- Is Cisco publicly traded?
- Yes — Cisco trades on NASDAQ under the ticker CSCO.
- Where is Cisco headquartered?
- Cisco is headquartered in San Jose, US.