(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) () a major supplier of computer networking gear that makes the Internet work said its chief executive officer John Chambers 65 will step down in July after 20 years at the helm of the company.
Cisco said its board has selected longtime company executive Chuck Robbins 49 to succeed Chambers according to a statement yesterday from the San Jose California-based company.
Robbins who joined in 1997 most recently served as Cisco's vice president of worldwide operations.
Chambers one of the longest-serving leaders of a Silicon Valley company and also company chairman will become executive chairman.
Cisco said the timing of the announcement was not related to its quarterly earnings report scheduled for May 13 and it did not alter its financial outlook.
Chambers told reporters he started thinking about retiring as CEO about three years ago.
The announcement ends years of speculation about Cisco’s succession plans and underscores a generational shift at many large technology companies.
Chambers is the second high-profile U.S. technology executive to step aside from the top job in the past eight months. In September database software maker Corp's CEO Larry Ellison announced his plan to become executive chairman.
Chambers arrived at Cisco in 1991 and took over as CEO in 1995 spearheading an extraordinary growth phase. Snapping up many smaller companies he moved Cisco from its pioneering stronghold in Internet devices known as routers into switching systems and the home placing Cisco at most important junctions of the Web.
Chambers has increased Cisco sales to about $48 billion from $1.2 billion.
For a brief time in early 2000 Cisco was the most valuable company in the world with a market value above $550 billion. But the company suffered after the Internet-stock bubble burst and its stock never regained its prior heights.
Shares were down 0.5 percent at $29.04 at 10:16 a.m. in New York.
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