Technology stalwart Cisco offered a big disappointment to investors, providing a dismal revenue outlook for the quarter and year.
CEO John Chambers blamed "short-term challenges" in Europe and public sector spending as well as weakness among its service provider base.
"First of all, our view on this guidance is, we are disappointed," he said. "We are obviously not projecting growth as fast as we would like over the next several quarters," Chambers told analysts on a conference call.
Cisco forecast revenue growth of 9 percent to 12 percent in fiscal 2011 below the 13.1 percent analysts had expected on average.
Chambers described the weakness as an "air pocket" that was likely short term. Cisco offers WiFi equipment and plays in the mobile packet core market.
For more:
- see this Reuters article
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