Cisco and 2 Telepresence Solutions

Cisco and 2 Telepresence Solutions

With acquisition of Tandberg by Cisco, there appears to be overlap of their telepresence portfolio.

The $3.4b acquisition is expected to wrap up sometime in H1 of 2010. At the product-level, this acquisition will see a fuller video conferencing portfolio from Cisco. While Cisco previously cover the lower-end video conference, Webex and the highest end board-room style telepresence, Tandberg's product line complements Cisco missing mid-range offerings. However, Tandberg has its own telepresence products. How will these 2 telepresence products integrate? Or will one of them be dropped off completely?

At the partners level, Tandberg's partners may or may not wait for official news. Some may react to this by switching over to Polycom. Just as the recent Avaya-Nortel acquisition sees partners switching sides, it is inevitable that some Tandberg's partners will switch to Polycom.

At the industry level, this suddenly leaves Polycom a very attractive choice. With an impending IPO coming up, will Avaya consider buying Polycom?