Cisco was founded in 1984 by husband and wife Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner. The company name comes from the city of San FranCISCO.
The company’s first product was a multiple-protocol router designed by Bosack. The company’s first CEO was Bill Graves.
The company went public in 1990. Lerner was fired the same year. Bosack resigned in protest.
The company acquired several Ethernet switching companies in the early 90s including Grand Junction, Kalpana and Crescendo Communications.
In 2000, Cisco became the most valuable company in the world before the dot com crash.
Today, Cisco is the world’s largest manufacturer of computer networking equipment.
