With the new 800 series running IOS for a few dollars more, the 700s have likely lost their strategic value to Cisco. The most frequent problem associated with an acquisition is the way that product improvement and support stall while the company overcomes integration shock. Yet, a year later, Yurie's flagship product, rebranded as the Lucent AC 10, hasn't changed. Our 1999 test units still ran code developed during the Yurie days, and a pack of competing products have left it in the dust. Of course, acquiring companies isn't simply about purchasing products.
Intellectual capital is the hot commodity.
While engineers are the real asset, keeping them from being distracted during a takeover is next to impossible. I wonder if two years ago Marc Andreessen could have imagined himself as the CTO of America Online. Small, simple, fast-moving organizations don't mix well with large, complex, bureaucratic ones. The battle to innovate among the big four networking vendors is heating up, and it will be fought and won based on how well they can integrate companies without screwing them up. Indeed, the best way to keep an acquired company moving is to keep the parent company out of the way.