Cisco Systems: dotcom crash survivor seeks further reinvention

Tech firm, which may cut 14,000 jobs, was the world's most valuable company but is now dwarfed by younger competitors

Founded in, and named after, San Francisco in 1984, Cisco Systems is one of a cluster of early Silicon Valley stalwarts that owe their existence to Stanford University.

The company's two founders, then husband and wife Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner, worked for the university, where early breakthroughs in networking technology were made. Cisco's first product was substantially based on Stanford's own router software - to the point where the company eventually signed an official licence with Stanford for the system three years later.