Startup offers to buy Cisco's WebEx

Cisco bought WebEx in 2007 for $3 billion as a SaaS delivery platform for conferencing, and a very visible component of its overall collaboration arsenal. Nevertheless analysts have argued that it's not a core competency of Cisco's and rumors were circulating over the past 18 months that Cisco might shed WebEx to focus on core markets and cut expenses, as it did with other non-core businesses, like the consumer-focused Flip and the Umi home TelePresence system, and some media and entertainment assets.

Cisco denied that it was planning or looking to sell off WebEx, arguing that it is in actual fact core to the company's mission of offering business collaboration tools that facilitate increased use of video, that in turn results in the need for clients to buy upgraded switches and routers.