Cisco Systems has placed a hold on further acquisitions until its financial outlook improves.

A report in today's Financial Times quotes Cisco chief executive John Chambers as saying it would be buying firms would be inappropriate "at a time when we're reducing our own workforce".

The decision is slightly surprising, if understandable in the current depressed state of the networking market, because the market value of smaller networking firms is declining faster than that of Cisco itself.

Cisco, which last year made 23 acquisitions last year, has not bought a company since last December. ®