For a number of days in March 2000, because the dotcom bubble neared bursting level, Cisco was the world’s most dear firm. Now the vendor of networking gear is a cautionary story, even when it’s also a permanent success, with actual earnings per share of four-and-a-half instances what they have been again then. Traders grew to become so exuberant concerning the agency’s prospects 25 years in the past that they valued it at greater than 200 instances its annual revenue, or round $1trn in at the moment’s cash. Ranging from a valuation that stratospheric, Cisco’s solid-but-unspectacular progress was a bitter disappointment. Its market worth is now $280bn.