The telecom equipment market is under siege - at least in this part of the world where Nortel is trying to slowly restructuring itself back to health. So it is seems, well, strange to hear Redback Networks's ambitious plans to double its workforce to 1,200 from 600 over the next year. In an interview, Mimi Gigoux, who heads up worldwide human resources for Redback, said the company is looking to hire in Canada and the U.S., rather than going off-shore to low-cost regions such as China and India. So what's behind the bullish hiring plans? Redback believes the "explosion" of Web-based services such as IP-TV, VOD and VoIP means huge demand for its edge-routers - a market where the competition includes heavyweights such as Cisco, Juniper and Alcatel. An interesting comment by Redback is their belief the telecolm equipment market is dividing itself between the large players, who are becoming system integrators, and smaller, niche players focused on specific types of technologies. Investors appear to have not picked up on Redback's optimism as the stock has dropped 40% in the past three months.
Update: Speaking of bullish, Cisco CEO John Chambers provided an enthusiastic outlook for the company's fiscal 2007 prospects yesterday with an expectation of 15% to 20% revenue growth. "We are gaining market share against nearly all our peers in the service provider segment," he said during a conference call after Cisco posted better than expected fiscal fourth-quarter results.