Making the Cisco Connection: The Story Behind the Real Internet Superpower

Cisco Systems is one of the most valuable companies in the world, yet few know very much about it. Making the Cisco Connection, by Upside Media CEO and editor David Bunnell, is a clear and comprehensive corporate history that certainly will change that. Beginning with the firm's 1984 founding at Stanford University--when Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner first concocted a way for different computer systems to communicate with each other--Bunnell follows the major players and their key actions in order to place this continuing Silicon Valley success story in the proper perspective. There's its meteoric rise at the cusp of the online age, when Bosack and Lerner initially devised the electronic router that is now the backbone of the Internet. There's the power struggle with a venture capitalist that ousted this once-married duo, the marketing savvy that ultimately gave their product an 80 percent market share, the acquisition strategy that has brought both allies and competitors into the fold, the culture that celebrates cooperation and fair play, the ongoing drive to become an even broader communication gateway. These and other moves, which Bunnell fully details, have built a company worth $200 billion today. "In the end," he writes, "who knows?" --Howard Rothman