"It was a solid quarter for Cisco," Chambers said in a conference call with financial analysts Tuesday. "This was the fourth best pro-forma net income in our history in the most challenging (time) our market has ever faced.". Chambers said sales to customers in federal government, education, retail and banking grew, while revenue from service providers and the high-tech and banking sectors fell. Chambers predicted flat to a slight increase in sales for the first quarter. If Cisco sales increase, it will be a percentage growth in the single digits, Carter added. "I'm a little more cautious than last year. Our customers are a little bit more cautious, and their visibility (of economic changes) may be contracting," Chambers said. "The vast majority of our enterprise customers have tight controls on spending and even freezes. Yet, our global enterprise business grew reasonably well over the last year. Visibility remains limited.".

"This was another solid quarter for Cisco, despite ongoing challenges penguin pattern iphone case in the economy," Chambers said in a statement, In addition, the network equipment giant Tuesday announced plans to repurchase an additional $5 billion in stock by September of next year, Cisco's board of directors in September of last year authorized the repurchase of $3 billion in stock, Of the $8 billion total, so far only $2 billion worth of stock has been repurchased, Because of Cisco's bellwether status in the networking industry, investors have looked forward to the San Jose, Calif.-based company's report for any signs that the technology downturn may be finally bottoming out..

Chambers remained optimistic about the long-term, saying that when the economy rebounds, he expects sales to businesses to take off first, followed by sales to service providers several quarters later. "While no one can say when the economy will turnaround, when it does turn around, we believe we are well-positioned to take advantage.". Chambers dismissed rumors that he would resign, saying he plans to stay at the helm of Cisco for years to come. Last week, Cisco's stock fell 8 percent amid rumors Chambers would leave Cisco.

"I have no intention to leaving Cisco, I plan to be here (for) multiple years, Retirement isn't something I'm thinking about, I'm very excited about our future, I plan to work here for quite a while," he said, Tuesday's results marks the fourth-straight quarter the company has met or surpassed analyst expectations since issuing a profit warning in April 2001, Cisco has penguin pattern iphone case weathered the downturn much better than rivals Nortel Networks and Lucent Technologies, partly because Cisco gets the majority of its revenue from corporate customers, rather than from ailing telecommunications service providers as its rivals do..

Excluding one-time costs, the network equipment maker earned $2.9 billion, or 39 cents per share, for the fiscal year. That compares with $3.1 billion, or 41 cents a share, for the same period a year ago. Revenue for the year, which ended July 27, fell 15 percent to $18.9 billion, compared with $22.3 billion in same period a year ago. Including costs, Cisco posted yearly net income of $1.9 billion, or 25 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $1 billion, or 14 cents per share, last year. Aside from Cisco's all-important outlook, analysts are also expected to pore over the company's fourth quarter and fiscal year figures in upcoming days. Following accounting fraud at WorldCom, companies are facing more scrutiny about accounting.