First Steve Jobs resigned from Apple. Then Carol Bartz was told to resign from Yahoo. Now rumors are swirling around the Internet that Cisco’s John Chambers will announce his resignation at his company’s annual financial analyst conference later today. It would bring an end to a 16-year run as the leader of one of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies, with annual revenue of $ 40.0 billion in 2010.
Cisco’s stock has shown a decline in recent quarters, but many Wall Street analysts believe that the worst is already behind them and that growth lies ahead. If this is true, Chambers will be leaving on a high note, having weathered the storm. If the numbers for the last quarter are disappointing, chances are that he will hold his position until there is a perceptible uptick.
If he does decide to resign, the Cisco board will have a hard time replacing him. Several candidates from within the company have started lobbying shareholders, though many people believe that the ideal candidate will be brought in from the outside.
Among the names frequently mentioned is Mark Hurd, formerly of HP and now of Oracle. If he is selected, he will have headed three of Silicon Valley’s most powerful companies in under a year.
