Cisco CEO John Chambers says little effect seen from Greek debt crisis

On the Call: Cisco CEO John Chambers

NEW YORK — Cisco Systems Inc., the world’s largest maker of computer networking equipment, reported fiscal-third quarter earnings that showed a strong recovery from last year’s doldrums.

During a conference call with investors, CEO John Chambers was asked about developments in the last few weeks, when Europe has been hammered by the Greek debt crisis, sparking fears of another global economic down turn.

QUESTION: Have you have had discussions with business managers that might suggest there’s more caution over there?

RESPONSE: In terms of nervousness, I think it had everybody’s attention in Europe, but we have not seen anything unusual from our teams, and actually they’re forecasting a reasonably good Q4 from the European side, with the appropriate caveat that if there’s one theater we’re watching, we watch one carefully, but have I haven’t seen anything that makes us abnormally concerned at this time.

In fact, we told our top, I think it was 1,800 partners, the other day in a meeting, we said ‘How many of you anticipate the second half of the year being year-over-year growth than the first half?’ It was all but maybe one or two percent raised their hand.

So optimism is pretty good around the world, I think there will always be a couple of challenges as we now see in Europe. I think we’re cautiously optimistic they’ll work through that.