CSCO: Cisco Authorizes Up To $7 Billion In Additional Stock Repurchases

Cisco, the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate, announced that at a regularly scheduled meeting of its board of directors today, the board authorized up to $7 billion in additional repurchases of its common stock in addition to the remaining authorized amount of $3.1 billion. Cisco's board had previously authorized up to $40 billion in stock repurchases. There is no fixed termination date for the repurchase program.

"We continue to believe in our repurchase program as a way to optimize the value to our shareholders," said Dennis Powell, Chief Financial Officer, Cisco. "Today, our share repurchase program allows us to return cash to our shareholders, while at the same time provides the flexibility to aggressively invest in the business for additional growth and differentiation, which we believe is good for both our customers and our shareholders."

Since the inception of the repurchase program in September 2001 through the close of Cisco's first quarter of fiscal year 2007 on October 28, 2006, the company had repurchased and retired approximately 2.0 billion shares of common stock at an average price of $18.51 per share for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $36.9 billion.