The first and second quarters of Cisco's fiscal 2011 proved that Cisco obviously bit off more than it could chew. Its core switching and routing businesses slumped, but . In the second fiscal quarter, switching revenue was down 7% from the previous year and the consumer business was down 15% -- an indication that Cisco may not be as adept at spotting or capitalizing on market transitions as it claims.

Chambers conference in March, promised to refocus the company on its core businesses in an April memo, and then lopped off its Flip videocam business a week later.

Cisco also realigned other consumer businesses, eliminated 550 jobs in those businesses, gutted its EoS media and entertainment operating system, and leaned more on its Linksys home networking operations to contribute to the core business.

WHERE TO GO:

Analysts are still , perhaps divesting itself of its Scientific-Atlanta cable set-top box business, which it acquired for close to $7 billion in 2005. That acquisition was preceded by Linksys, for $500 million in 2003; and followed up by Pure Digital, maker of the Flip videocam, in 2009 for $590 million. That's $8 billion invested in acquiring consumer businesses since 2003, not counting how much R&D was spent on these product and markets since then.