Rodent Regatta

Cisco is buying Linksys. Cisco is another of those companies that has been built largely by acquisitions. Another famous example of the acquisitive strategy is Worldcom. On scales large and small acquiring companies have to be extremely cautious about getting what they pay for. They also have to be nearly ruthless in their willingness to write down assets when they realize they’ve overpaid. Otherwise, you get to the ”big bath” accounting practices that led to Worldcom’s announcement of nearly $80 billion of write-downs.

Here’s what Cisco seems to have in mind for Linksys.