-video conferencing networks. He hopes that CRS-1 will be at the heart of these activities. Other innovations from Cisco include three new Integrated Service Routers, which will be the first to deliver secure, wire-speed data, voice, video, and other advanced services to small and medium-sized businesses and large corporate branch offices. The 1800 and 2800 series debut in September 2004, and the 3800 series in October 2004. Buy, buy, buy During this period of expansion, the company has also taken up its old practice of snapping up smaller companies through a string of recent acquisitions. Three recent deals include agreements to purchase service control platform developer, P-Cube, Inc. for roughly $200 million (August 2004), IT management firm NetSolve, for roughly $200 million (September 2004), and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based solution developer, dynamicsoft, for $55 million (September 2004). Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, VAULT CAREER career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more. LIBRARY Vault Guide to the Top Telecom Employers Cisco Systems, Inc. Target: Cisco Still, the company faces some difficult decisions ahead that will play a large part in determining its future. Competitors such as PC manufacturer Dell and China's Huawei Technologies are looking to erode Cisco's market share by introducing low- cost networking equipment and software. Commodification was effective in slashing the prices of PCs in the 1980s and 1990s; a similar process in the networking equipment business could be disastrous for Cisco. The company is defending its turf, ending its cooperative agreement with Dell and bringing a lawsuit against Huawei for alleged patent infringement. Huawei had hoped to begin selling its own software that could be used to operate Cisco routers; Cisco accuses the company of stealing its code. In June 2003, Cisco scored a partial win in the first round of its legal battle with Huawei when a federal judge in Texas issued an in