Cisco on buying spree again

Networking giant Cisco has bought Fibex Systems and Sentient Networks, paying over $445 million for both. The deal will be accounted for with shares, Fibex Systems getting $310 million and Sentient Networks around $120 million. Both Fibex and Sentient sell high end networking systems to telephone companies. Last year, Cisco bought nine companies but these are the first companies it has bought in 1999. ®