and the Sustainability of the New Economy
Cisco Systems, the leading e-commerce company provides Internet solutions and integrations for EcoSystem Models concerning hardware and software components, ranking No.2 behind General Electric in the list of America's Most Admired Companies.
Being the third largest company on the NASDAQ behind Microsoft and Intel with a market value come to $255 billion, Cisco is able to take over competitors and companies providing the facilities Cisco needs.
This becomes even clearer if you consider that Cisco's market value is as high as the market value of the next ten following competitors combined.
The number of takeovers raised in the last three years from 9 in 1998 to 23 in 2000!
During the decline of the NASDAQ Cisco's stock price went down from 65 $ in August 2000 to under 30 $ in February 2001. Cisco Systems is loosing partly an important strategically tool by the decline of the stock market.
This short example should illustrate the influence of the stock market on strategically issues and question its sustainability.