Earnings Preview: Cisco To Report Fiscal 3rd Qtr

NEW YORK (AP) — Cisco Systems Inc., the world's largest maker of computer networking gear, reports its fiscal third-quarter results on Wednesday. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period.

OVERVIEW: In March, Cisco detailed its plans to grab a bigger share of corporate computer spending, saying it plans to start selling servers in competition with old partners like Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Corp.

The servers are part of a package put together by Cisco and partners like BMC Software and VMware Inc. to harness the power of a recent technology, "virtualization," that lets one computer act like several.

Cisco followed up that announcement a few days later by agreeing to pay $590 million in stock for Pure Digital Technologies, which makes the Flip camcorder.

Cisco's moves have not gone unnoticed: IBM recently said it would start reselling routers and switches made by Cisco competitor Brocade Communications Systems Inc. HP is also getting more aggressive about pushing its own networking products that compete with Cisco.