Cisco made sales of $6.1bn in the second quarter of its financial year ended 29 January 2005 - 12.3 per cent more than last year. The networking equipment vendor made a net profit of $1.4bn (Q204: $724m). But sales did meet Wall Street estimates and Cisco shares fell slightly in after hours trading yesterday.

Cisco continues to buy back its own shares. In the second quarter Cisco spent $2.7bn on 140m of its own shares at an average price of $19.30. Cisco has spent $22.6bn on 1.3bn shares since the buyback scheme started.

In a conference call John Chambers, Cisco's chief executive, expressed cautious optimism that corporate spending was improving, but noted that the real strength of the market would not be clear until the fourth quarter.

Cisco acquired BCN Systems, Jahi Networks, NetSolve and Perfigo, during the second quarter.

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