[daemon13]

That is Cisco's innovation strategy for the last 10-15 years.

They "outsource" R&D/Innovation to smaller companies and then buy those.

Hence, their special skills as a company are:

1. Identify future growth areas [market segments] and potential leaders.

2. Seamlessly merge the acquired company into Cisco operations.

There was a good article about this in Fortune/Forbes 6-8 years - did not keep the link.