Cisco Systems 10-K 2024-07-27

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

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FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

☒			ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended July 27, 2024

or

☐			TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the transition period from ____ to ____

Commission file number 001-39940

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CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Delaware									77-0059951
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)									(IRS Employer Identification No.)
170 West Tasman Drive									95134-1706
San Jose,			California
(Address of principal executive offices)									(Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (408) 526-4000

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class:			Trading Symbol(s)			Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, par value $0.001 per share			CSCO			The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

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Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. ☒ Yes ☐ No

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. ☐ Yes ☒ No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. ☒ Yes ☐ No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). ☒ Yes ☐ No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer						☒									Accelerated filer						☐
Non-accelerated filer						☐									Smaller reporting company						☐
															Emerging growth company						☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). ☐ Yes ☒ No

Aggregate market value of registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based upon the closing price of a share of the registrant’s common stock on January 26, 2024 as reported by the Nasdaq Global Select Market on that date: $211.1 billion

Number of shares of the registrant’s common stock outstanding as of August 30, 2024: 3,990,734,794

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DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement relating to the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, to be held on December 9, 2024, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K where indicated.

						PART I
Item 1.						Business						1
Item 1A.						Risk Factors						12
Item 1B.						Unresolved Staff Comments						26
Item 1C.						Cybersecurity						27
Item 2.						Properties						28
Item 3.						Legal Proceedings						28
Item 4.						Mine Safety Disclosures						28
						PART II
Item 5.						Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters, and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities						29
Item 6.						[Reserved]						30
Item 7.						Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations						31
Item 7A.						Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk						51
Item 8.						Financial Statements and Supplementary Data						53
Item 9.						Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure						104
Item 9A.						Controls and Procedures						104
Item 9B.						Other Information						104
Item 9C.						Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections						104
						PART III
Item 10.						Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance						105
Item 11.						Executive Compensation						105
Item 12.						Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters						105
Item 13.						Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence						105
Item 14.						Principal Accountant Fees and Services						105
						PART IV
Item 15.						Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules						105
Item 16.						Form 10-K Summary						107
						Signatures						108

This Annual Report on Form 10-K, including the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and our future results that are subject to the safe harbors created under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). All statements other than statements of historical facts are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about the industries in which we operate and the beliefs and assumptions of our management. Words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “targets,” “goals,” “projects,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “momentum,” “seeks,” “estimates,” “continues,” “endeavors,” “strives,” “may,” variations of such words, and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to projections of our future financial performance, our anticipated growth and trends in our businesses, and other characterizations of future events or circumstances are forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict, including those identified below, under “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” and elsewhere herein. Therefore, actual results may differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements for any reason.

PART I

General

Cisco designs and sells a broad range of technologies that help to power, secure, and draw insights from the Internet. We are integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into our product portfolios across networking, security, collaboration and observability to simplify how our technology is delivered, managed and optimized and to help customers maximize the business value of their technology investments and accelerate their digital transformation.

We conduct our business globally and manage our business by geography. Our business is organized into the following three geographic segments: Americas; Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA); and Asia Pacific, Japan, and China (APJC).

Our products and technologies are grouped into the following categories: Networking, Security, Collaboration and Observability. In addition to our product offerings, we provide a broad range of services offerings, including technical support services and advanced services, also known as lifecycle services. Our customers include businesses of all sizes, public institutions, governments, and service providers, including large webscale providers. These customers often look to us as a strategic partner to help them use information technology (IT) to differentiate themselves and drive positive business outcomes.

We were incorporated in California in 1984 and reincorporated in Delaware in 2021. Our headquarters are in San Jose, California. The mailing address of our headquarters is 170 West Tasman Drive, San Jose, California 95134-1706, and our telephone number at that location is (408) 526-4000. Our website is www.cisco.com. Through a link on the Investor Relations section of our website, we make available the following filings as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at sec.gov: our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act. All such filings are available free of charge. The information published on our website, or any other website referenced herein, is not incorporated into this report.

Strategy and Priorities

Across the globe, businesses and organizations of every size are leveraging Cisco technology to transform and drive better outcomes and experiences. We also help customers navigate emerging technological shifts. Our strategy is to securely connect everything to make those desired outcomes and experiences possible for our customers.

In today’s dynamic environment, our customers have three key priorities: build modern and resilient infrastructure; protect against the cyber threats of today and tomorrow; and harness the power of AI and data.

These customer priorities are central to how we innovate and develop our technology. First, we provide the underlying network connectivity for our customers, whether they are connecting traditional branch offices, data centers, smart grids, video devices, electric vehicles, or other devices. Second, we help protect those network connections and the underlying technology architecture against cyber threats. Third, through the visibility we have into data across the network, connected devices and applications, we provide context and insights to our customers about what is happening in their technology architecture, not only in their on-premise infrastructure and private data centers, but also their cloud infrastructure. Our ongoing innovation is delivered, managed and optimized through a combination of hardware, software and subscriptions, in line with the flexible consumption models our customers request.

Cisco can help customers connect, protect and draw actionable insights from their technology. We do this in service of delivering the digital resilience our customers need for today’s complex and unpredictable world.

Customer Priorities

Modernize Infrastructure

In an increasingly digital and connected world, where each new connection to the Internet puts more demand on the network, our customers are looking to modernize and transform their infrastructure, including through automation to manage and monitor each connection in real time.

We continue to transform our enterprise networking portfolio by bringing together several technologies to form an integrated architecture. Our vision is to build a unified management platform experience for on-premise and cloud operating models, that simplifies and helps secure networking for customers at scale.

Our Observability offerings collect and process daily measurements from customers’ owned and unowned networks, providing automated insights, proactive recommendations, and closed-loop operations tailored to customers to enable them to reduce mean time to resolution of issues and improve IT productivity and user experience.

For the data center, our strategy is to deliver multicloud architectures that bring policy and operational consistency, regardless of where applications or data reside. We continue to make significant investments in the development of software, silicon and optics, which we believe are the building blocks for the internet for the future.

As part of modernizing their infrastructure, customers of every size are also looking for solutions to help them communicate more effectively with their customers and to connect their employees more efficiently for productivity. Our collaboration portfolio, which includes interoperable devices and our cloud contact center, provides those solutions, and serves as a key component of smart buildings, powered over ethernet, that we believe will define the workplaces of the future.

Improve Cybersecurity

With the rapid growth in modern applications, hyper-distributed architecture and increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, customers see cybersecurity as a top priority. Our differentiated security strategy is based on three pillars: moving from point solutions to a platform comprehensively integrated with the infrastructure; infusing security into the fabric of the network; and harnessing the depth and breadth of telemetry data from Cisco and with our acquisition of Splunk Inc. (“Splunk”) to prevent, detect, and respond to sophisticated attacks.

Harness the Power of AI and Data

AI represents a generational shift in technology and is driving an order of magnitude higher requirement for network connectivity. We provide network infrastructure to power AI training and inference workloads for both webscalers and enterprises. We help to scale our customers’ network infrastructure with high-density routers and switches, improved network management, and high-performance optics. We are reinventing data center operations for our customers by simplifying the configuration, monitoring, and maintenance of fabrics, compute, networking and storage.

We can help give customers visibility across the network, security solutions, applications and their own business data. With this breadth and scale of data, we can help deliver differentiated insights and context to customers, leading them to more informed proactive decisions and better business results.

For a discussion of the risks associated with our Strategy and Priorities, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factor entitled “We depend upon the development of new products and services, and enhancements to existing products and services, and if we fail to predict and respond to emerging technological trends and customers’ changing needs, our operating results and market share may suffer.” For information regarding sales of our major products and services, see Note 19 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Products and Services

Our products and services are grouped into the following categories:

Networking

Networking consists of our core networking technologies of switching, routing, wireless, and servers. These technologies consist of both hardware and software offerings, including software licenses and software-as-a-service (SaaS), that help our customers build networks, automate, modernize and transform their infrastructure. We believe it is critical for us to deliver continuous value to our customers. Our objective is to converge our on-premise solutions with our cloud managed solutions across our networking portfolio.

Our Switching portfolio encompasses campus switching as well as data center switching offerings. Our campus switching offerings provide the foundation for converged data, voice, video, and Internet of Things (IoT) services. These switches offer enhanced security and reliability and are designed to scale efficiently as our customers grow. Within campus switching are our Catalyst 9000 series of switches that include hardware with embedded software, along with a software subscription referred to as Cisco DNA. Cisco DNA provides automation, analytics and security features and can be centrally monitored, managed, and configured. Also, within campus switching we have a range of Meraki cloud-managed switches for customers who prefer ease of management in lean-IT environments. Our data center switching offerings, led by the Nexus 9000 series, provide the foundation for mission critical data centers with high availability, scalability, and security across traditional data centers and private and public cloud data centers. We continue to add greater visibility and analytics across our networks and applications, enabling us to deliver better experiences for our customers.

Internet Infrastructure primarily consists of our routed optical networking solutions. We are focusing on transforming connectivity to the Internet and the cloud environment by efficiently meeting the growing demand for low-latency and higher speeds. Our routed optical networking systems and our pluggable optic solutions, allow us to transform the economics of building and operating networks for our service provider customers, including our webscale customers. Cisco Silicon One is our single, unified, and scalable networking silicon architecture which we have expanded from a routing-focused solution to one which addresses the webscale switching market through the combination of its high-performance, feature-rich, and low-power characteristics. Our Cisco 8000 series routers, which are based on our Silicon One, provide broad capacity in high-density designs, allowing our customers to reduce operational footprints, lower carbon emissions, and transition to more efficient network architectures.

Our Enterprise Routing portfolio interconnects public and private wireline and mobile networks, delivering highly secure and reliable connectivity to campus, data center and branch networks. Our routing solutions are designed to meet the scale, reliability, and security needs of our large to small customers.

Our Wireless portfolio provides indoor and outdoor wireless coverage designed for seamless roaming use of voice, video, and data applications. These products include wireless access points and controllers that are on-premise and cloud managed, and which, combined with our Switching portfolio, delivers a converged access solution that is powerful, yet simple.

Security

Security consists of our Network Security, Identity and Access Management, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Threat Intelligence, Detection, and Response offerings. Security is a leading priority for our customers, regardless of size or industry. We continue to invest in resources across our security portfolio focused on cloud-based offerings, AI-enhanced threat detection and end-to-end security architectures. Our Threat Intelligence, Detection, and Response offerings incorporate the technologies of Splunk to prevent, detect and respond to sophisticated cyber attacks. This product category includes the Splunk Platform and Splunk Security offerings after the acquisition of Splunk, although the Splunk Platform has use cases that can also be applicable for Observability offerings. With our acquisition of Splunk in the third quarter of fiscal 2024, we have begun to integrate our solutions, starting with Cisco Extended Detection and Response (XDR) and Splunk Enterprise Security. Additionally, we continue to invest in expanding our SASE architecture by delivering combined network and security functionality in a single cloud-native service.

Collaboration

Collaboration consists of our Webex Suite, Collaboration Devices, Contact Center and Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) offerings. Our offerings within the Collaboration portfolio consist of software offerings, including perpetual licenses and subscription arrangements, as well as hardware. Our Collaboration strategy is to reimagine employee and customer experiences to be more inclusive and engaging by providing technology that enables distributed teams to collaborate effortlessly. We offer end-to-end collaboration solutions that can be delivered from the cloud, on-premise or within hybrid cloud environments allowing customers to transition their collaboration solutions from on-premise to the cloud. AI and machine learning capabilities are embedded across the Webex portfolio to help improve productivity. Our CPaaS is a cloud

communications platform that integrates communication channels and existing back-end business systems together to help enable the orchestration and automation of all customer and employee interactions.

Observability

Observability consists of our network assurance, monitoring and analytics and observability suite offerings. Our Observability offerings are designed to bring together and provide end-to-end visibility of our customer’s environments across applications, networks, multi-cloud infrastructures and the Internet, to help deliver full stack observability for modern environments and drive relevant real-time insights. These offerings enable organizations to see, understand, and improve every digital experience and assure seamless connectivity for their modern digital environments. Our network assurance offering, ThousandEyes, is a network intelligence platform that provides in-depth visibility into network and internet performance. Our Observability Suite offering, including Splunk Observability and AppDynamics, provides complete visibility across the full stack from infrastructure to applications as well as the digital customer experience.

Services

In addition to our product offerings, we provide a broad range of service and support options for our customers. Our support and maintenance services help our customers ensure their products operate efficiently, remain available, and benefit from the most up-to-date system and application software. These services help customers protect their network investments, manage risk, and minimize downtime for systems running mission-critical applications.

We also provide comprehensive advisory services that are focused on responsive, preventive, and consultative support of our technologies for specific networking needs. We are investing in and expanding advisory services in the areas of software, cloud, security, and analytics, which reflects our strategy of selling customer outcomes. We are focused on three priorities: utilizing technology advisory services to drive higher product and services; assessment and migration services providing the tools, expertise and methodologies to enable our customers to migrate to new technology platforms; and providing optimization services aligned with customers’ business expectations. We are also embedding AI assistants and automated functions into our services to drive productivity.

Customers and Markets

Many factors influence the IT, collaboration, and networking requirements of our customers. These include the size of the organization, number and types of technology systems, geographic location, and business applications deployed throughout the customer’s network. Our customer base is not limited to any specific industry, geography, or market segment. Our customers primarily operate in the following markets: enterprise, public sector and service provider and cloud.

Enterprise

Enterprise includes businesses that are large regional, national, or global organizations with multiple locations or branch offices, or mid-market and small businesses. Many enterprise businesses have unique IT, collaboration, and networking needs within a multi-vendor environment. Our mid-market and small business customers typically require the latest advanced technologies, but with less complexity. We offer service and support packages, financing, and managed network services, primarily through our service provider partners. We sell these products through a network of third-party application and technology vendors and channel partners, as well as selling directly to these customers.

Public Sector

Public Sector includes federal, state and local governments, as well as educational institution customers. Many public sector customers have unique IT, collaboration, and networking needs within a multi-vendor environment. We sell to public sector customers through a network of third-party application and technology vendors and channel partners, as well as through direct sales.

Service Provider and Cloud

Service Provider and Cloud includes regional, national, and international wireline carriers and webscale operators, as well as internet, cable, and wireless providers. We also include media, broadcast, and content providers within this customer market, as the lines in the telecommunications industry continue to blur between traditional network-based, content-based and application-based services. This customer market offers data, voice, video, and mobile/wireless services to businesses, governments, utilities, and consumers worldwide. Service provider and cloud businesses use a variety of our products and services for their own networks. In addition, many service providers use Cisco data center, virtualization, and collaboration technologies to offer managed or internet-based services to their business customers. Compared with other customers, service providers are more likely to require network design, deployment, and support services because of the greater scale and higher complexity of their networks, whose requirements are addressed, we believe, by our architectural approach.

Sales Overview

As of the end of fiscal 2024, our worldwide sales and marketing functions consisted of approximately 28,000 employees, including managers, sales representatives, and technical support personnel. We sell our products and services both directly and indirectly through a variety of channels with support from our sales workforce. A substantial portion of our products and services is sold indirectly through channel partners, and the remainder is sold through direct sales. Channel partners include systems integrators, service providers, other third-party resellers, and distributors.

Systems integrators and service providers typically sell directly to end users and often provide system installation, technical support, professional services, and other support services in addition to network equipment sales. Systems integrators also typically integrate our products into an overall solution. Some service providers are also systems integrators.

Distributors may hold inventory and sell to systems integrators, service providers, and other third-party resellers. We refer to sales through distributors as our two-tier system of sales to the end customer. Revenue from two-tier distributors is recognized based on a sell-in method. These distributors may be given business terms that allow them to return a limited portion of inventory, receive credits for changes in selling prices, receive certain rebates, and participate in various cooperative marketing programs.

Our service offerings complement our products through a range of consulting, technical, project, quality, and software maintenance services, including 24-hour online and telephone support through technical assistance centers.

For information regarding risks related to our sales channels, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factors entitled “Disruption of or changes in our distribution model could harm our sales and margins” and “Inventory management relating to our sales to our two-tier distribution channel is complex, and excess inventory may harm our gross margins.”

For information regarding risks relating to our international operations, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factors entitled “Our operating results may be negatively impacted by unfavorable economic and market conditions and the uncertain geopolitical environment;” “Entrance into new or developing markets exposes us to additional competition and will likely increase demands on our service and support operations;” “Due to the global nature of our operations, political or economic changes or other factors in a specific country or region could harm our operating results and financial condition;” “We are exposed to fluctuations in currency exchange rates that could negatively impact our financial results and cash flows;” and “Cyber attacks, data breaches or other incidents impacting our solutions and IT environment may disrupt our operations, harm our operating results and financial condition, and damage our reputation or otherwise materially harm our business; and cyber attacks, data breaches or other incidents on our customers’ or third-party providers’ networks, or in third-party products we use, could result in claims of liability against us, give rise to legal and/or regulatory action, damage our reputation or otherwise materially harm our business,” among others.

Financing Arrangements

We provide financing arrangements for certain qualified customers to build, maintain, and upgrade their networks. We believe customer financing is a competitive advantage in obtaining business, particularly for those customers involved in significant infrastructure projects. Our financing arrangements include loans, leases (sales-type, direct financing and operating) and channel financing arrangements.

Acquisitions, Investments, and Alliances

The markets in which we compete require a wide variety of technologies, products, and capabilities. We continue to evaluate opportunities to acquire and invest in businesses and technologies that complement and enable further investment in our key priority areas.

Acquisitions

We acquire companies in order to gain access to talent, technology, products and features, operational capabilities or new markets. The risks associated with acquisitions are more fully discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factor entitled “We have made and expect to continue to make acquisitions that could disrupt our operations and harm our operating results.”

Investments in Privately Held Companies

We make investments in privately held companies that develop technology or provide services that are complementary to our products or that provide insights into emerging technologies that may become relevant to our businesses. The risks associated with these investments are more fully discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factor entitled “We are exposed to fluctuations in the market values of our portfolio investments and in interest rates; impairment of our investments could harm our earnings.”

Strategic Alliances

We pursue strategic alliances with other companies in areas where collaboration can produce industry advancement and accelerate new markets. The objectives and goals of a strategic alliance can include one or more of the following: technology exchange, product development, joint sales and marketing, or new market creation.

The risks associated with our strategic alliances are more fully discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factor entitled “If we do not successfully manage our strategic alliances, we may not realize the expected benefits from such alliances and we may experience increased competition or delays in product development.”

Competition

We compete in the networking and communications equipment markets, providing products and services designed to transport, and help secure data, voice, and video traffic across cloud, private and public networks and the Internet. We compete with numerous vendors in each product category. The overall number of our competitors providing niche product solutions may increase. Also, the identity and composition of competitors may change as we increase our activity in newer product areas, and in key priority areas. As we continue to expand globally, we may see new competition in different geographic regions. In particular, we have experienced price-focused competition from competitors in Asia, especially from China, and we anticipate this will continue.

Our competitors (in each case relative to only some of our products or services) include: Amazon Web Services LLC; Arista Networks, Inc.; Broadcom Inc.; Ciena Corporation; CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc.; Datadog Inc.; Dell Technologies Inc.; Dynatrace Inc.; Fortinet, Inc.; Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company; Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.; Juniper Networks, Inc.; Microsoft Corporation; New Relic, Inc.; Nokia Corporation; Nvidia Corporation; Palo Alto Networks, Inc.; RingCentral, Inc.; Zoom Video Communications, Inc.; and Zscaler, Inc.; among others.

Some of our competitors compete across many of our product lines, while others are primarily focused in a specific product area. Barriers to entry are relatively low, and new ventures to create products that do or could compete with our products are regularly formed. In addition, some of our competitors may have greater resources, including technical and engineering resources, than we do. As we expand into new markets, we will face competition not only from our existing competitors but also from other competitors, including existing companies with strong technological, marketing, and sales positions in those markets. We also sometimes face competition from resellers and distributors of our products. Companies with which we have strategic alliances in some areas may be competitors in other areas, and this trend may increase. For example, the enterprise data center is undergoing a fundamental transformation arising from the convergence of technologies, including computing, networking, storage, and software, that previously were segregated. Additionally, companies that are strategic alliance partners in some areas of our business may acquire or form alliances with our competitors, thereby reducing their business with us.

The principal competitive factors in the markets in which we presently compete and may compete in the future include the ability to sell successful business outcomes; the ability to provide a broad range of networking and communications products and services; product performance; price; the ability to introduce new products, including providing continuous new customer value and products with price-performance advantages; the ability to reduce production costs; the ability to provide value-added features such as security, reliability, and investment protection; conformance to standards; market presence; the ability to provide financing; and disruptive technology shifts and new business models.

We also face competition from customers to which we license or supply technology and suppliers from which we transfer technology. The inherent nature of networking requires interoperability. As such, we must cooperate and, at the same time, compete with many companies. Any inability to effectively manage these complicated relationships with customers, suppliers, and strategic alliance partners could materially harm our business, operating results, and financial condition and accordingly affect our chances of success.

Research and Development

We regularly introduce new products and features to address the requirements of our markets. We allocate our research and development budget among our product categories, which consist of Networking, Security, Collaboration, and Observability technologies. Our research and development expenditures are applied generally to all product areas, with specific areas of focus being identified from time to time. Our expenditures for research and development costs were expensed as incurred.

The industry in which we compete is subject to rapid technological developments, evolving standards, changes in customer requirements, and new product introductions and enhancements. As a result, our success depends, in part, on our ability, on a cost-effective and timely basis, to continue to enhance our existing products and to develop and introduce new products that improve performance and reduce total cost of ownership. To achieve these objectives, our management and engineering personnel work with customers to identify and respond to customer needs, as well as with other innovators of internet networking products, including universities, laboratories, and corporations. We also expect to continue to make acquisitions and

strategic investments, where appropriate, to provide us with access to new technologies. Nonetheless, there can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully develop products to address new customer requirements and technological changes or that those products will achieve market acceptance.

Manufacturing

We rely on contract manufacturers for our manufacturing needs. We presently use a variety of independent third-party companies to provide services related to printed-circuit board assembly, in-circuit test, product repair, and product assembly. Proprietary software in electronically programmable memory chips is used to configure products that meet customer requirements and to maintain quality control and security. The manufacturing process enables us to configure the hardware and software in unique combinations to meet a wide variety of individual customer requirements. The manufacturing process also uses automated testing equipment and burn-in procedures, as well as comprehensive inspection, testing, and statistical process controls, which are designed to help ensure the quality and reliability of our products. The manufacturing processes and procedures are generally certified to International Organization for Standardization 9001 standards.

Our arrangements with contract manufacturers generally provide for quality, cost, and delivery requirements, as well as manufacturing process terms, such as inventory management; flexibility regarding capacity, quality, and cost management; oversight of manufacturing; and conditions for use of our intellectual property. We have not entered into any significant long-term contracts with any contract manufacturers. We generally have the option to renew arrangements on an as-needed basis. These arrangements with contract manufacturers generally do not commit us to purchase any particular amount or any quantities beyond amounts covered by orders or forecasts that we submit covering discrete periods of time.

Patents, Intellectual Property, and Licensing

We seek to establish and maintain our proprietary rights in our technology and products through the use of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secret laws. We have a program to file applications for and obtain patents, copyrights, and trademarks in the United States and in selected foreign countries where we believe filing for such protection is appropriate. We also seek to maintain our trade secrets and confidential information by nondisclosure policies and through the use of appropriate confidentiality agreements. We have obtained a substantial number of patents and trademarks in the United States and in other countries. There can be no assurance, however, that the rights obtained can be successfully enforced against infringing products in every jurisdiction. Although we believe the protection afforded by our patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets has value, the rapidly changing technology in the networking industry and uncertainties in the legal process make our future success dependent primarily on the innovative skills, technological expertise, and management abilities of our employees rather than on the protection afforded by patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret laws.

Many of our products are designed to include software or other intellectual property licensed from third parties. While it may be necessary in the future to seek or renew licenses relating to various aspects of our products, we believe, based upon past experience and standard industry practice, that such licenses generally could be obtained on commercially reasonable terms. Nonetheless, there can be no assurance that the necessary licenses would be available on acceptable terms, if at all. Our inability to obtain certain licenses or other rights or to obtain such licenses or rights on favorable terms, or the need to engage in litigation regarding these matters, could materially harm our business, operating results, and financial condition. Moreover, inclusion in our products of software or other intellectual property licensed from third parties on a nonexclusive basis can limit our ability to protect our proprietary rights in our products.

The industry in which we compete is characterized by rapidly changing technology, a large number of patents, and frequent claims and related litigation regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. There can be no assurance that our patents and other proprietary rights will not be challenged, invalidated, or circumvented; that others will not assert intellectual property rights to technologies that are relevant to us; or that our rights will give us a competitive advantage. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries may not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. The risks associated with patents and intellectual property are more fully discussed in “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factors entitled “Our proprietary rights may prove difficult to enforce,” “We may be found to infringe on intellectual property rights of others,” and “We rely on the availability of third-party licenses.”

Government Regulation

We are subject to numerous regulations and laws in the United States and abroad that involve matters central to our business. Many of these regulations and laws are evolving and their applicability and scope, as interpreted by courts and regulators, remain uncertain. These regulations and laws involve a variety of matters including privacy, data protection and personal information, cybersecurity, operational resilience, artificial intelligence, tax, trade, encryption technology, environmental sustainability (including climate change), human rights, product certification, and national security.

A failure, or alleged failure, by us to comply with regulations or laws could materially harm our business, operating results, or financial condition. For additional information about government regulation and laws applicable to our business, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors,” including the risk factor entitled “Our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially harmed by evolving regulatory uncertainty or obligations applicable to our products and services” and Note 14 to the Consolidated Financial Statements, subsection (f) “Legal Proceedings.”

Talent and Culture

At Cisco, we value our people and our technology, and we leverage our broader ecosystems to positively impact the world and pursue our purpose to Power an Inclusive Future for All. Our goal is to attract, retain, and develop talent in order to help our customers connect and secure their infrastructure, and accelerate their digital agility. Our relationship with our employees is one of mutual benefit. Our employees bring talent and ingenuity to everything we do, and in turn, we provide employees with meaningful careers and development opportunities.

Cisco is currently ranked #2 on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® 2024 in the United States. Fortune and Great Place to Work have published their United States rankings since 1998, and Cisco has been recognized on every annual list. Cisco is currently #1 in the following 18 countries: Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

As of July 27, 2024, we had approximately 90,400 employees and they are categorized as follows:

We support our employees through times of change and enable them to be their best. We do this by fostering a Conscious Culture. Conscious Culture speaks to the importance of everyone being aware — “conscious” — of the environment they are part of, and feeling accountable, empowered, and expected to contribute to creating a culture where all Cisco employees feel safe and can thrive. Conscious Culture encourages employees to be aware of how we treat one another and to speak up when we see behavior that’s out of step with our beliefs. We believe there is a direct connection between the culture we create internally and how our people are helping to bring about a better world.

In the same way that every employee at Cisco is responsible for our Conscious Culture, we also want every employee to feel responsible for and contribute to our purpose to Power an Inclusive Future for All. We believe this is as much a commitment from Cisco as it is from our employees. Our people often ask the toughest questions around how we are impacting society for the better, from addressing homelessness to combating climate change. And often the best ideas for how we can do even more come directly from them. Future employees expect it too. We recognize that talent increasingly wants to work for a company where their work has meaning and where they see their values reflected in the organization.

Inclusion & Diversity

Inclusion and diversity are core components in our Conscious Culture. Inclusivity is our strength and our priority. We want every employee to feel valued, respected, and heard. We are prioritizing inclusion and diversity across the company, recognizing that connecting people of all experiences and backgrounds allows us to improve innovation and collaboration.

In order to continue accelerating diversity and finding extraordinary talent, we have designed a framework that includes introducing new tools and technologies to help accurately map the talent market, creating job roles that attract highly qualified diverse candidates, and expanding the diversity within our interview panels.

We currently have a total of 31 Inclusive Communities supporting full-spectrum diversity globally, including gender, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, age, ability, veteran status, religion, culture, background, as well as varied experiences, strengths, and perspectives. These thriving communities continue to be a source of strength and support for employees, and they help to foster a more Conscious Culture by providing opportunities for proximity and learning.

Cisco has signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion Pledge. The CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion Pledge is a CEO-driven pledge to drive measurable action and meaningful change in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. We are delivering on these actions by accelerating diversity across the full-spectrum of diversity — including gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability, nationality, religion, veteran status, background, culture, experience, strengths and perspectives. At Cisco, it starts at the top: As of July 27, 2024, 36% of our Executive Leadership Team (ELT) are women and 43% are diverse in terms of gender or ethnicity.

We publish certain gender diversity and ethnic diversity workforce data annually. Across our global company, we have driven broad improvements in overall workforce diversity. Based on our fiscal 2023 data, our global employee base was comprised of 29% women, 71% men and 0.1% nonbinary, and our U.S. employee base was comprised of the following ethnicities: 48.2% White/Caucasian, 33.5% Asian, 6.5% Hispanic/Latino, 5.6% African American/Black, 2.0% two or more races (not Hispanic or Latino), 0.3% American Indian or Alaska Native, 0.2% Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, and 3.7% prefer to not to disclose/unknown.

With respect to social justice, Cisco has been partnering across the globe to scale and amplify our positive impact. We have published our Social Justice Beliefs & Actions, which is our blueprint for how we respond to injustice and address inequity for any community. We are creating actions that can be replicated and scaled and are designed to cover the full spectrum of diversity, inclusive of gender, generation, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability, nationality, and background — which is the foundation of our Conscious Culture. This work is part of a plan for Cisco to drive transformational, generational impact for vulnerable communities. Our Social Justice Action Office helps drive accountability, progress, and excellence in our strategic actions in this area, which are designed to address the broader ecosystem including our employees, partners, customers, and suppliers.

Compensation and Benefits

Our total compensation philosophy is designed to attract, reward, and retain talent. It provides market competitive, performance-based compensation aligned with each employee’s contribution and impact to the value we drive to our customers, partners and stockholders. We reward and recognize our employees for effecting innovation, collaboration, profitability, and growth within our geographies, product lines, and functions.

Cisco has always been committed to compensating our employees fairly and equitably. We are a founding signatory of the White House Equal Pay Pledge and the Parity.org pledge, and are a leader in the charge to make fair pay a reality for all employees through the Employers for Pay Equity Consortium. We have also introduced an innovative and inclusive framework that provides us powerful analytics to evaluate our complex compensation system. For example, by using these powerful analytics, we are able to test for pay parity on a regular basis, and when gaps are found, we strive to correct them.

As part of our Social Justice Beliefs and Actions, we have expanded our pay parity program beyond base salary to include additional forms of compensation fairness such as promotion, bonuses, and stock decisions made in our rewards programs. We aim to ensure the program addresses all employees across the full spectrum of diversity incorporating our global self-reported data collection.

Health & Well-being

We have an ongoing commitment to focus on the health, safety, and well-being of our employees. We seek to provide our employees and their families with high-quality, flexible, and convenient benefits and resources for their physical, mental, and financial well-being. We strive to support our employees as they balance careers and personal lives, as well as their own physical, emotional, and financial health. We continue to emphasize a focus on both physical and mental health, recognizing the need to create an environment where employees can speak openly about mental health and other matters.

We host ongoing discussions with our employees during the Cisco Beat and Cisco Check-Ins, our regular company-wide virtual meetings, and continue to emphasize our Safe to Talk program. We offer mindfulness courses, employee assistance program offerings, and out-of-network provider benefits for substance abuse and mental health treatment, and more. In fiscal 2024, we continued to offer employees “A Day for Me,” which were paid days off that allowed for each individual to recharge and rest. We employ a hybrid work model in certain countries, giving our employees the flexibility to work offsite or at onsite Cisco locations.

Employee Development

We know careers are not static pathways that look the same for everyone. We also know that the world of work will continue to rapidly evolve, requiring new skillsets. At Cisco, we believe that your career is owned by you, supported by your leader, and enabled by Cisco. Cisco believes in open-ended self-directed learning, understanding that each individual knows best what skills and resources they need to succeed. This means that while each employee has the power to shape their career on their own terms, they also have a supportive ecosystem to develop the skills they need to succeed both today and tomorrow. We strive to

create a culture of “one company, many careers.” We provide our people with career strategies focused on areas we know determine a successful career at Cisco—personal brand, network, expertise, and experience—and have created customized offerings that map to each of them.

Employee Engagement

We believe that strong communication is key in our Conscious Culture. These communications include the Cisco Beat, which are regular all-hands meetings, and Cisco Check-Ins, which are ad-hoc meetings for important conversations, and weekly team leader check-ins, which we refer to as a “Team Space Check-In.” In fiscal 2024, we have seen a high level of employee engagement. As an example, there were approximately 2.3 million Team Space Check-Ins by our employees in fiscal 2024, reflecting approximately 70,300 employees (excludes employees who recently joined Cisco during fiscal 2024 through the Splunk acquisition) submitting Team Space Check-Ins. Employees also participate in our global Engagement Pulse Survey and the Real Deal Survey. These surveys allow our employees to provide confidential feedback on our culture, company strategy and trust in their direct leaders.

Purpose Report and ESG Reporting Hub

Additional information regarding Cisco’s ESG initiatives and progress can be found in our annual Purpose Report and on our ESG Reporting Hub at https://www.cisco.com/go/esg-hub. The contents of our Purpose Report, our ESG Reporting Hub and related supplemental information are not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC.

Information about our Executive Officers

The following table shows the name, age, and position as of August 31, 2024 of each of our executive officers:

Name						Age						Position with the Company
Charles H. Robbins						58						Chair and Chief Executive Officer
R. Scott Herren						62						Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Gary Steele						62						President, Go-to-Market
Deborah L. Stahlkopf						54						Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer
Thimaya Subaiya						46						Executive Vice President, Operations

Mr. Robbins serves as our Chief Executive Officer since July 2015, as a member of the Board of Directors since May 2015, and as Chair of the Board since December 2017. Mr. Robbins joined Cisco in December 1997, from which time until March 2002 he held a number of managerial positions within Cisco’s sales organization. Mr. Robbins was promoted to Vice President in March 2002, assuming leadership of Cisco’s U.S. channel sales organization. Additionally, in July 2005, Mr. Robbins assumed leadership of Cisco’s Canada channel sales organization. In December 2007, Mr. Robbins was promoted to Senior Vice President, U.S. Commercial, and, in August 2009 he was appointed Senior Vice President, U.S. Enterprise, Commercial and Canada. In July 2011, Mr. Robbins was named Senior Vice President, Americas. In October 2012, Mr. Robbins was promoted to Senior Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations, in which position he served until assuming the role of Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Robbins is also a member of the board of directors of BlackRock, Inc. (since 2017).

Mr. Herren joined Cisco in December 2020 and serves as our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Cisco, Mr. Herren served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Autodesk, Inc. (“Autodesk”) since November 2014. Prior to joining Autodesk, Mr. Herren served as Senior Vice President of Finance at Citrix Systems, Inc. (“Citrix”) from September 2011 to October 2014, and in a variety of other leadership roles after joining Citrix in March 2000, including as Vice President and Managing Director for EMEA and Vice President and General Manager of Citrix’s virtualization systems group. Before joining Citrix, Mr. Herren spent over 15 years in senior strategy and financial positions at FedEx Corporation and International Business Machines Corporation. Mr. Herren is a member of the board of directors of Rubrik, Inc. (since 2021).

Mr. Steele joined Cisco in March 2024 and serves as our President, Go-to-Market. Mr. Steele joined Cisco as Executive Vice President and General Manager, Splunk upon the close of Cisco’s acquisition of Splunk in March 2024, and was promoted to President, Go-to-Market in May 2024. Prior to joining Cisco, Mr. Steele served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Splunk from April 2022 to March 2024. Prior to joining Splunk, Mr. Steele served as Chief Executive Officer of Proofpoint, Inc. from November 2002 to March 2022. From 1997 to 2002, Mr. Steele served as Chief Executive Officer of Portera Systems Inc. (“Portera”). Before Portera, Mr. Steele served as the Vice President and General Manager of the Middleware and Data Warehousing Product Group of Sybase, Inc. Mr. Steele also served in business development, marketing, and engineering roles at Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Company. Mr. Steele is a member of the board of directors of Upwork Inc. (since 2018).

Ms. Stahlkopf joined Cisco in August 2021 and serves as our Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer. Prior to joining Cisco, Ms. Stahlkopf spent 14 years at Microsoft, where she served most recently as Corporate Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Corporate, External and Legal Affairs from April 2018 to July 2021. Ms. Stahlkopf also served in other leadership roles at Microsoft, including as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel from December 2015 to April 2018 and as Associate General Counsel from December 2010 to December 2015. Prior to joining Microsoft, Ms. Stahlkopf practiced law at Perkins Coie LLP and Cooley Godward LLP. Ms. Stahlkopf is a member of the board of directors of NextEra Energy, Inc. (since 2023).

Mr. Subaiya joined Cisco in July 2018 and serves as our Executive Vice President of Operations since March 2024. Previously, Mr. Subaiya served as Cisco’s Senior Vice President, Chief Transformation Officer from March 2023 to March 2024, as Senior Vice President and General Manager, Customer Experience from November 2021 to March 2023, and as Senior Vice President, Customer Experience Operations and Renewals from July 2018 to November 2021. Prior to joining Cisco, Mr. Subaiya spent 8 years at Salesforce, Inc. (“Salesforce”) where he served in a variety of leadership roles, including most recently as its Chief Operating Officer of Customer Success. Before joining Salesforce, Mr. Subaiya held various leadership roles in business development and global planning and strategy at Oracle Corporation.

Set forth below and elsewhere in this report and in other documents we file with the SEC are descriptions of the risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the results contemplated by the forward-looking statements contained in this report.

Risks Related to our Business and Industry

Our operations can be difficult to predict because our operating results may fluctuate in future periods.

Our operating results have been in the past, and will continue to be, subject to quarterly and annual fluctuations as a result of numerous factors, some of which may contribute to more pronounced fluctuations in an uncertain global economic environment. These factors include:

• Fluctuations in demand for our products and services, especially with respect to service providers and internet businesses, in part due to changes in the global economic environment

• Changes in sales and implementation cycles for our products and reduced visibility into our customers’ spending plans and associated revenue

• Our ability to maintain appropriate inventory levels and purchase commitments

• Price and product competition in the communications and networking industries, which can change rapidly due to technological innovation and different business models from various geographic regions

• The overall movement toward industry consolidation among both our competitors and our customers

• The introduction and market acceptance of new technologies and products, and our success in new and evolving markets, and in emerging technologies, as well as the adoption of new standards

• Variations in sales channels, product costs, mix of products sold, or mix of direct sales and indirect sales

• The timing, size, and mix of orders from customers

• Manufacturing and customer lead times

• Fluctuations in our gross margins, and the factors that contribute to such fluctuations

• The ability of our customers, channel partners, contract manufacturers and suppliers to obtain financing or to fund capital expenditures, especially during a period of global credit market disruption or in the event of customer, channel partner, contract manufacturer or supplier financial problems

• Actual events, circumstances, outcomes, and amounts differing from judgments, assumptions, and estimates used in determining the values of certain assets (including the amounts of related valuation allowances), liabilities, and other items reflected in our Consolidated Financial Statements

• How well we execute on our strategy and operating plans and the impact of changes in our business model that could result in significant restructuring charges

• Our ability to achieve targeted cost reductions

• Benefits anticipated from our investments

• Changes in tax laws or accounting rules, or interpretations thereof

As a consequence, operating results for a particular future period are difficult to predict, and, therefore, prior results are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected in future periods. Any of the foregoing factors, or any other factors discussed elsewhere herein, could materially harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Our operating results may be negatively impacted by unfavorable economic and market conditions and the uncertain geopolitical environment.

Challenging economic conditions, including rising inflation, or other changes, worldwide have from time to time contributed, and may continue to contribute, to slowdowns in the communications and networking industries at large, as well as in specific segments and markets in which we operate, resulting in: reduced demand for our products as a result of continued constraints on IT-related capital spending by our customers, particularly service provider and cloud as well as enterprise and other customer markets; increased price competition for our products, not only from our competitors but also as a consequence of customers disposing of unutilized products; risk of excess and obsolete inventories; risk of supply constraints; risk of excess facilities and manufacturing capacity; and higher overhead costs as a percentage of revenue and higher interest expense.

The global macroeconomic environment can be challenging and inconsistent. In certain prior periods, we have seen a broad-based weakening in the global macroeconomic environment which has impacted and could impact in the future certain of our markets. Additionally, instability in the global credit markets, the impact of uncertainty regarding global central bank monetary

policy, the instability in the geopolitical environment in many parts of the world (including as a result of the on-going Russia and Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas war, and China-Taiwan relations), the current economic challenges in China, including global economic ramifications of Chinese economic difficulties, and other disruptions may continue to put pressure on global economic conditions. If global economic and market conditions, or economic conditions in key markets, were to deteriorate, we may experience material harm to our business, operating results, and financial condition.

Our operating results in one or more segments may also be affected by uncertain or changing economic conditions particularly germane to that segment or to particular customer markets within that segment. In addition, reports of certain intelligence gathering methods of the U.S. government could affect customers’ perception of the products of IT companies which design and manufacture products in the United States. Trust and confidence in us as an IT supplier are critical to the development and growth of our markets. Impairment of that trust, or foreign regulatory actions taken in response to reports of certain intelligence gathering methods of the U.S. government, could affect the demand for our products from customers outside of the United States and could have a negative impact on our operating results.

Our revenue for a particular period is difficult to predict, and a shortfall in revenue may harm our operating results.

As a result of a variety of factors discussed in this report, our revenue for a particular quarter is difficult to predict, which can be exacerbated during periods when the global macroenvironment is challenging and inconsistent and can result in market uncertainty. Our revenue may grow at a slower rate than in past periods, or decline as it did in fiscal 2024 and certain prior periods on a year-over-year basis. Our ability to meet financial expectations could also be negatively impacted if the nonlinear sales pattern seen in some of our past quarters recurs in future periods. During the first nine months of fiscal 2024, we experienced a decline in product demand resulting in a decrease of revenue as customers continued to scrutinize spend as they needed additional time to implement elevated levels of product shipments received in prior quarters. We have also experienced periods of time during which shipments have exceeded net bookings or manufacturing issues have delayed shipments, leading to nonlinearity in shipping patterns. In addition to making it difficult to predict revenue for a particular period, nonlinearity in shipping can increase costs, because irregular shipment patterns result in periods of underutilized capacity and periods in which overtime expenses may be incurred, as well as in potential additional inventory management-related costs. In addition, to the extent that manufacturing issues and any related component shortages result in delayed shipments in the future, and particularly in periods in which our contract manufacturers are operating at higher levels of capacity, it is possible that revenue for a quarter could be negatively impacted if such matters occur and are not remediated within the same quarter.

The timing of large orders can also have a significant impact on our business and operating results from quarter

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None.

We recognize the critical importance of maintaining the trust and confidence of our customers, employees, and other stakeholders. To help mitigate the cybersecurity risks that we face, we maintain processes for identifying, assessing, and managing such risks.

Our incident response functions, which include our Security and Trust Organization (“S&TO”) under the leadership of our Chief Security and Trust Officer, have established internal policies, processes, and procedures to monitor, detect, investigate, respond to, and escalate management of internal and external cybersecurity threats and incidents. We maintain policies and procedures for the escalation of cybersecurity incidents, assessed as potentially being or becoming material, to designated members of our senior management for further assessment. We also, as necessary, inform our independent registered public accounting firm of significant cybersecurity matters and any relevant developments.

To help identify, assess, and mitigate cybersecurity threats that we face to our business, S&TO, in addition to its own capabilities, partners with Cisco’s Talos Threat Intelligence Group and third parties, including governments and peer companies, to share and receive threat intelligence and other information. S&TO actively monitors for and evaluates cybersecurity vulnerabilities, threats, and incidents observable on the internet and the dark web. In addition to monitoring risks from threats to our own business, we operate third-party risk management programs to help identify and manage risks from cybersecurity threats arising from third-party suppliers and service providers on which we rely. These programs leverage on-going security-focused risk assessments based on industry practices, audits, and contractual requirements.

We strive to embed security into our products and services through the Cisco Secure Development Lifecycle (CSDL). The CSDL introduces security and privacy considerations throughout the lifecycle of our products and services. In addition, S&TO advises business units and functional areas on addressing cybersecurity risks and monitors initiatives to mitigate and manage such risks over time. Our business units or functional areas are responsible for managing risks and ensuring that security policies and standards are implemented within the respective business unit or function. S&TO also conducts mandatory cybersecurity training for our employees and provides employees with tools to report suspected incidents.

S&TO engages third parties in connection with our cybersecurity risk management processes, including cybersecurity consultants and auditors, to conduct evaluations of our IT security controls and provide certifications for industry-standard security frameworks. In addition, we maintain a global privacy program to assess and manage privacy risks related to how we are collecting, using, sharing, and storing personal data, which is subject to assessment by an independent, third-party privacy assessor.

Our Chief Security and Trust Officer, who reports to our Executive Vice President, Operations, works collaboratively across our business to implement policies and procedures designed to protect our IT environment and our products and services from cybersecurity threats, and to promptly respond to cybersecurity incidents in accordance with our incident response policies and procedures. Our Chief Security and Trust Officer has extensive cybersecurity experience and has served in various roles in information technology and information security for over 25 years.

The Chief Security and Trust Officer provides regular reports on the status of cybersecurity risks, priorities, and focus areas to our executive leadership team. In addition, information on cybersecurity risks is further integrated into our broader enterprise risk management program through our internal audit function, which incorporates such information in regular audits of our cybersecurity and data protection controls and processes.

Our Board of Directors oversees risks related to cybersecurity threats to our business directly and through its Audit Committee. The Audit Committee receives regular reports on cybersecurity risks, priorities, and focus areas from our Chief Security and Trust Officer at least four times a year and receives a live presentation at least twice a year. Our Board of Directors also regularly receives updates from the Audit Committee on its oversight activities and, on occasion, receives updates directly from our Chief Security and Trust Officer. Additionally, the Chief Security and Trust Officer provides more frequent updates to the Board of Directors and Audit Committee if necessary due to a cybersecurity threat, incident, or other development.

As of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we do not believe our business, operating results, or financial condition have been materially affected by cybersecurity risks, including as a result of previously identified cybersecurity incidents. For more information on our cybersecurity related risks, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Our corporate headquarters are located at an owned site in San Jose, California, in the United States of America. The locations of our headquarters by geographic segment are as follows:

Americas						EMEA						APJC
San Jose, California, USA						Amsterdam, Netherlands						Singapore

In addition to our headquarters site, we own additional sites in the United States, which include facilities in the surrounding areas of San Jose, California; Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; and Richardson, Texas. In addition, we lease office space in many U.S. locations.

Outside the United States our operations are conducted primarily in leased sites. Other significant sites (in addition to the two non-U.S. headquarters locations) are located in Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Germany, India, Israel, Norway, Poland, and the United Kingdom.

We believe that our existing facilities, including both owned and leased, are in good condition and suitable for the conduct of our business.

For a description of pending legal proceedings in which we are involved, see Note 14 “Commitments and Contingencies - (f) Legal Proceedings” of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is incorporated herein by reference.

Not applicable.

PART II

(a)Cisco common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol CSCO. There were 32,405 registered stockholders as of August 30, 2024.

(b)None.

(c)Issuer purchases of equity securities (in millions, except per-share amounts):

Period			Total Number of Shares Purchased						Average Price Paid per Share						Total Number of Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs						Approximate Dollar Value of Shares That May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs
April 28, 2024 to May 25, 2024			12						$	47.44					12						$	6,585
May 26, 2024 to June 22, 2024			18						$	46.08					18						$	5,770
June 23, 2024 to July 27, 2024			13						$	47.19					13						$	5,170
Total			43						$	46.80					43

On September 13, 2001, we announced that our Board of Directors had authorized a stock repurchase program. As of July 27, 2024, the remaining authorized amount for stock repurchases under this program is approximately $5.2 billion with no termination date.

For the majority of restricted stock units granted, the number of shares issued on the date the restricted stock units vest is net of shares withheld to meet applicable tax withholding requirements. Although these withheld shares are not issued or considered common stock repurchases under our stock repurchase program and therefore are not included in the preceding table, they are treated as common stock repurchases in our financial statements as they reduce the number of shares that would have been issued upon vesting (see Note 15 to the Consolidated Financial Statements).

Stock Performance Graph

The information contained in this Stock Performance Graph section shall not be deemed to be “soliciting material” or “filed” or incorporated by reference in future filings with the SEC, or subject to the liabilities of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), except to the extent that Cisco specifically incorporates it by reference into a document filed under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act.

The following graph shows a five-year comparison of the cumulative total stockholder return on Cisco common stock with the cumulative total returns of the S&P 500 Index, and the S&P Information Technology Index. The graph tracks the performance of a $100 investment in the Company’s common stock and in each of the indexes (with the reinvestment of all dividends) on the date specified. Stockholder returns over the indicated period are based on historical data and should not be considered indicative of future stockholder returns.

Comparison of 5-Year Cumulative Total Return Among Cisco Systems, Inc.,

the S&P 500 Index, and the S&P Information Technology Index

			July 2019						July 2020						July 2021						July 2022						July 2023						July 2024
Cisco Systems, Inc.			$	100.00					$	84.70					$	104.30					$	87.95					$	104.27					$	98.92
S&P 500			$	100.00					$	108.39					$	150.48					$	143.50					$	161.94					$	195.82
S&P Information Technology			$	100.00					$	129.40					$	190.26					$	179.77					$	227.74					$	304.23

Forward-Looking Statements

This Annual Report on Form 10-K, including this Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and our future results that are subject to the safe harbors created under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). All statements other than statements of historical facts are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about the industries in which we operate and the beliefs and assumptions of our management. Words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “targets,” “goals,” “projects,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “momentum,” “seeks,” “estimates,” “continues,” “endeavors,” “strives,” “may,” variations of such words, and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to projections of our future financial performance, our anticipated growth and trends in our businesses, and other characterizations of future events or circumstances are forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict, including those under “Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors,” and elsewhere herein. Therefore, actual results may differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements for any reason.

OVERVIEW

Cisco designs and sells a broad range of technologies that help to power, secure, and draw insights from the Internet. We are integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into our product portfolios across networking, security, collaboration and observability to simplify how our technology is delivered, managed and optimized and to help customers maximize the business value of their technology investments and accelerate their digital transformation.

A summary of our results is as follows (in millions, except percentages and per-share amounts):

			Three Months Ended																		Years Ended
			July 27, 2024						July 29, 2023						Variance						July 27, 2024						July 29, 2023						Variance
Revenue			$	13,642					$	15,203					(10)		%				$	53,803					$	56,998					(6)		%
Gross margin percentage			64.4		%				64.1		%				0.3			pts			64.7		%				62.7		%				2.0			pts
Research and development			$	2,179					$	1,953					12		%				$	7,983					$	7,551					6		%
Sales and marketing			$	2,841					$	2,579					10		%				$	10,364					$	9,880					5		%
General and administrative			$	763					$	690					11		%				$	2,813					$	2,478					14		%
Total R&D, sales and marketing, general and administrative			$	5,783					$	5,222					11		%				$	21,160					$	19,909					6		%
Total as a percentage of revenue			42.4		%				34.3		%				8.1			pts			39.3		%				34.9		%				4.4			pts
Restructuring and other charges included in operating expenses			$	112					$	203					(45)		%				$	789					$	531					49		%
Operating income as a percentage of revenue			19.2		%				28.0		%				(8.8)			pts			22.6		%				26.4		%				(3.8)			pts
Interest and other income (loss), net			$	(222)					$	218					NM						$	53					$	287					(82)		%
Income tax percentage			9.8		%				11.5		%				(1.7)			pts			15.6		%				17.7		%				(2.1)			pts
Net income			$	2,162					$	3,958					(45)		%				$	10,320					$	12,613					(18)		%
Net income as a percentage of revenue			15.8		%				26.0		%				(10.2)			pts			19.2		%				22.1		%				(2.9)			pts
Earnings per share—diluted			$	0.54					$	0.97					(44)		%				$	2.54					$	3.07					(17)		%

Percentages may not recalculate due to rounding.

NM — Not meaningful

CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.

MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS (Continued)

Fiscal 2024 Compared with Fiscal 2023

In fiscal 2024, total revenue decreased by 6% compared with fiscal 2023. In March 2024, we completed the acquisition of Splunk Inc. (“Splunk”), which contributed approximately $1.4 billion in total revenue for fiscal 2024. Within total revenue, product revenue decreased by 9% and services revenue increased by 5%. In fiscal 2024, total software revenue was $18.4 billion across all product areas and services, an increase of 9%, driven by the contribution of Splunk. Total subscription revenue increased 11%, partially driven by the contribution of Splunk.

During the first nine months of fiscal 2024, we experienced a decline in product demand as customers continued to scrutinize spend as they needed additional time to implement elevated levels of product shipments received in prior quarters. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 we saw improvement in product demand across all geographic segments and customer markets as customers largely completed the installation of their product shipments. While we continue to operate in a highly competitive environment and the overall macroeconomic environment remains challenging and uncertain, we plan to continue to invest in key priority areas with the objective of driving profitable growth over the long term.

Total gross margin increased by 2.0 percentage points. Product gross margin increased by 2.0 percentage points, largely driven by favorable product mix, productivity benefits and benefits from Splunk, partially offset by negative impacts from pricing. As a percentage of revenue, research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses, collectively, increased by 4.4 percentage points. Operating income as a percentage of revenue decreased by 3.8 percentage points driven primarily by incremental operating expenses from Splunk, higher restructuring and other charges and higher amortization of purchased intangible assets in fiscal 2024. Diluted earnings per share decreased by 17%, driven by a decrease of 18% in net

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Our financial position is exposed to a variety of risks, including interest rate risk, equity price risk, and foreign currency exchange risk.

Interest Rate Risk

Available-for-Sale Debt Investments We maintain an investment portfolio of various holdings, types, and maturities. Our primary objective for holding available-for-sale debt investments is to achieve an appropriate investment return consistent with preserving principal and managing risk. At any time, a sharp rise in market interest rates could have a material adverse impact on the fair value of our available-for-sale debt investment portfolio. Conversely, declines in interest rates, including the impact from lower credit spreads, could have a material adverse impact on interest income for our investment portfolio. Our available-for-sale debt investments are held for purposes other than trading. Our available-for-sale debt investments are not leveraged as of July 27, 2024. We monitor our interest rate and credit risks, including our credit exposures to specific rating categories and to individual issuers. We believe the overall credit quality of our portfolio is strong.

The following tables present the hypothetical fair values of our available-for-sale debt investments, including the hedging effects when applicable, as a result of selected potential market decreases and increases in interest rates. The market changes reflect immediate hypothetical parallel shifts in the yield curve of plus or minus 50 basis points (BPS), plus 100 BPS, and plus 150 BPS. The hypothetical fair values as of July 27, 2024 and July 29, 2023 are as follows (in millions):

			VALUATION OF SECURITIES GIVEN AN INTEREST RATE DECREASE OF X BASIS POINTS																		FAIR VALUE AS OF JULY 27, 2024						VALUATION OF SECURITIES GIVEN AN INTEREST RATE INCREASE OF X BASIS POINTS
			(150 BPS)						(100 BPS)						(50 BPS)						50 BPS						100 BPS						150 BPS
Available-for-sale debt investments			$10,057						$9,993						$9,929						$9,865						$9,800						$9,736						$9,672

			VALUATION OF SECURITIES GIVEN AN INTEREST RATE DECREASE OF X BASIS POINTS																		FAIR VALUE AS OF JULY 29, 2023						VALUATION OF SECURITIES GIVEN AN INTEREST RATE INCREASE OF X BASIS POINTS
			(150 BPS)						(100 BPS)						(50 BPS)						50 BPS						100 BPS						150 BPS
Available-for-sale debt investments			$15,901						$15,798						$15,695						$15,592						$15,489						$15,386						$15,284

Financing Receivables As of July 27, 2024, our financing receivables had a carrying value of $6.7 billion, compared with $6.8 billion as of July 29, 2023. As of July 27, 2024, a hypothetical 50 BPS increase or decrease in market interest rates would change the fair value of our financing receivables by a decrease or increase of approximately $0.1 billion, respectively.

Debt As of July 27, 2024, we had $20.3 billion in principal amount of senior fixed-rate notes outstanding. The carrying amount of the senior notes was $20.1 billion, and the related fair value based on market prices was $20.4 billion. As of July 27, 2024, a hypothetical 50 BPS increase or decrease in market interest rates would change the fair value of the fixed-rate debt, excluding the $0.5 billion of hedged debt, by a decrease or increase of approximately $0.7 billion, respectively. However, this hypothetical change in interest rates would not impact the interest expense on the fixed-rate debt that is not hedged.

At any time, a sharp rise in market interest rates could cause us to incur additional interest expense to the extent we issue additional commercial paper or other debt.

Equity Price Risk

Marketable Equity Investments The fair value of our marketable equity investments is subject to market price volatility. We hold equity securities for strategic purposes or to diversify our overall investment portfolio. These equity securities are held for purposes other than trading. The total fair value of our marketable equity securities was $481 million and $431 million as of July 27, 2024 and July 29, 2023, respectively.

Privately Held Investments These investments are recorded in other assets in our Consolidated Balance Sheets. As of July 27, 2024, the total carrying amount of our investments in privately held investments were each $1.8 billion at July 27, 2024 and July 29, 2023. Some of these companies in which we invested are in the startup or development stages. These investments are inherently risky because the markets for the technologies or products these companies are developing are typically in the early stages and may never materialize. We could lose our entire investment in these companies. Our evaluation of privately held investments is based on the fundamentals of the businesses invested in, including, among other factors, the nature of their technologies and potential for financial return.

Foreign Currency Exchange Risk

Our foreign exchange forward contracts outstanding at fiscal year-end are summarized in U.S. dollar equivalents as follows (in millions):

			July 27, 2024												July 29, 2023
			Notional Amount						Fair Value						Notional Amount						Fair Value
Forward contracts:
Purchased			$	3,586					$	(59)					$	3,014					$	(33)
Sold			$	3,848					$	60					$	2,406					$	31

We conduct business globally in numerous currencies. The direct effect of foreign currency fluctuations on revenue has not been material because our revenue is primarily denominated in U.S. dollars. However, if the U.S. dollar strengthens relative to other currencies, such strengthening could have an indirect effect on our revenue to the extent it raises the cost of our products to non-U.S. customers and thereby reduces demand. A weaker U.S. dollar could have the opposite effect. However, the precise indirect effect of currency fluctuations is difficult to measure or predict because our revenue is influenced by many factors in addition to the impact of such currency fluctuations.

Approximately 70% of our operating expenses are U.S.-dollar denominated. In fiscal 2024, foreign currency fluctuations, net of hedging, increased our combined R&D, sales and marketing, and G&A expenses by approximately $30 million, or 0.2%, as compared with fiscal 2023. To reduce variability in operating expenses and service cost of sales caused by non-U.S.-dollar denominated operating expenses and costs, we may hedge certain forecasted foreign currency transactions with currency options and forward contracts. These hedging programs are not designed to provide foreign currency protection over long time horizons. In designing a specific hedging approach, we consider several factors, including offsetting exposures, significance of exposures, costs associated with entering into a particular hedge instrument, and potential effectiveness of the hedge. The gains and losses on foreign exchange contracts mitigate the effect of currency movements on our operating expenses and service cost of sales.

We also enter into foreign exchange forward and option contracts to reduce the short-term effects of foreign currency fluctuations on receivables and payables that are denominated in currencies other than the functional currencies of the entities. The market risks associated with these foreign currency receivables and payables relate primarily to variances from our forecasted foreign currency transactions and balances. We do not enter into foreign exchange forward or option contracts for speculative purposes.

Index to Consolidated Financial Statements

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID 238)			54
Reports of Management			57
Consolidated Balance Sheets			58
Consolidated Statements of Operations			59
Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income			60
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows			61
Consolidated Statements of Equity			62
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements			63
Note 1: Basis of Presentation			63
Note 2: Summary of Significant Accounting Policies			63
Note 3: Revenue			69
Note 4: Acquisitions			71
Note 5: Goodwill and Purchased Intangible Assets			74
Note 6: Restructuring and Other Charges			76
Note 7: Balance Sheet and Other Details			77
Note 8: Leases			78
Note 9: Financing Receivables			80
Note 10: Investments			83
Note 11: Fair Value			85
Note 12: Borrowings			86
Note 13: Derivative Instruments			88
Note 14: Commitments and Contingencies			91
Note 15: Stockholders’ Equity			93
Note 16: Employee Benefit Plans			94
Note 17: Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (Loss)			98
Note 18: Income Taxes			99
Note 19: Segment Information and Major Customers			102
Note 20: Net Income per Share			103

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of Cisco Systems, Inc.

Opinions on the Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Cisco Systems, Inc. and its subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of July 27, 2024 and July 29, 2023, and the related consolidated statements of operations, of comprehensive income, of equity and of cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended July 27, 2024, including the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). We also have audited the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of July 27, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of July 27, 2024 and July 29, 2023, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended July 27, 2024 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of July 27, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the COSO.

Basis for Opinions

The Company's management is responsible for these consolidated financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express opinions on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and on the Company's internal control over financial reporting based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud, and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.

Our audits of the consolidated financial statements included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.

As described in Management’s Report on Internal Contr

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None.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Based on our management’s evaluation (with the participation of our principal executive officer and principal financial officer), as of the end of the period covered by this report, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)), are effective to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in reports that we file or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in Securities and Exchange Commission rules and forms and is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.

Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Management’s report on our internal control over financial reporting and the report of our independent registered public accounting firm on our internal control over financial reporting are set forth, respectively, on page 57 under the caption “Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting” and on page 54 of this report.

There was no change in our internal control over financial reporting during our fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

In accordance with guidance issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission staff, companies are permitted to exclude acquisitions from their assessment of internal control over financial reporting for a period not to exceed one year from the date of the acquisition. Management’s assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of July 27, 2024 did not include the internal controls of Splunk, which we acquired on March 18, 2024. We have included the financial results of Splunk in our Consolidated Financial Statements since the date of acquisition. Total assets and total revenues of Splunk represented approximately 3 percent of each of our total consolidated assets and total consolidated revenue as of and for the year ended July 27, 2024.

Rule 10b5-1 Trading Arrangements

During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024, none of our directors or officers (as defined in Rule 16a-1(f) of the Exchange Act) informed us of the adoption or termination of a “Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement” or “non-Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement,” each as defined in Item 408 of Regulation S-K.

Not applicable.

PART III

We have adopted a code of ethics that applies to our principal executive officer and all members of our finance department, including the principal financial officer and principal accounting officer. This code of ethics can be found at the “Financial Officer Code of Ethics” link in the Corporate Governance section of Cisco’s Investor Relations website at investor.cisco.com. We intend to satisfy any disclosure requirement regarding an amendment to, or waiver from, a provision of this code of ethics by posting such information on that website or in a report on Form 8-K.

Insider Trading Arrangements and Policies

We are committed to promoting high standards of ethical business conduct and compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations. As part of this commitment, we have adopted an Insider Trading Policy governing transactions in our securities by our directors, employees, contractors, consultants and other personnel providing services to Cisco, as well as by Cisco itself, that we believe is reasonably designed to promote compliance with insider trading laws, rules and regulations and The Nasdaq Stock Market listing standards. The foregoing summary of the Insider Trading Policy does not purport to be complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the Insider Trading Policy attached hereto as Exhibit 19.1.

The additional information required by this item is included in our Proxy Statement related to the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be filed with the SEC within 120 days after July 27, 2024 (the “Proxy Statement”) and is incorporated herein by reference.

The information required by this item is included in our Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

The information required by this item is included in our Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

The information required by this item is included in our Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

The information required by this item is included in our Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

PART IV

(a)1. Financial Statements

See the “Index to Consolidated Financial Statements” on page 53 of this report.

2.Financial Statement Schedule

All financial statement schedules have been omitted, since the required information is not applicable or is shown in the financial statements or notes herein.

3.Exhibits

See the “Index to Exhibits” beginning on page 106 of this report.

INDEX TO EXHIBITS

Exhibit Number						Exhibit Description						Incorporated by Reference																								Filed Herewith
												Form						File No.						Exhibit						Filing Date
2.1						Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of September 20, 2023, by and among Cisco Systems, Inc., Spirit Merger Corp. and Splunk Inc.						8-K						001-39940						2.1						9/21/2023
3.1						Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of Cisco Systems, Inc., as currently in effect						8-K12B						001-39940						3.1						1/25/2021
3.2						Amended and Restated Bylaws of Cisco Systems, Inc., as currently in effect						8-K						001-39940						3.2						3/10/2023
4.1						Indenture, dated February 17, 2009, between Cisco Systems, Inc. and the Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A., as trustee						8-K						000-18225						4.1						2/17/2009
4.2						Indenture, dated November 17, 2009, between Cisco Systems, Inc. and the Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A., as trustee						8-K						000-18225						4.1						11/17/2009
4.3						Indenture, dated March 3, 2014, between the Company and The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A., as trustee						8-K						000-18225						4.1						3/3/2014
4.4						First Supplemental Indenture, dated January 25, 2021 to the Indenture, dated February 17, 2009, between Cisco Systems, Inc. and the Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A., as trustee						10-Q						001-39940						4.1						2/16/2021
4.5						First Supplemental Indenture, dated January 25, 2021 to the Indenture, dated November 17, 2009, between Cisco Systems, Inc. and the Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A., as trustee						10-Q						001-39940						4.2						2/16/2021
4.6						First Supplemental Indenture, dated January 25, 2021 to the Indenture, dated March 3, 2014, between the Company and The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company						10-Q						001-39940						4.3						2/16/2021
4.7						Indenture, dated as of February 26, 2024, between Cisco Systems, Inc. and The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A., as trustee						8-K						001-39940						4.1						2/26/2024
4.8						First Supplemental Indenture, dated as of February 26, 2024, between Cisco Systems, Inc. and The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A., as trustee, for 4.900% Senior Notes due 2026, 4.800% Senior Notes due 2027, 4.850% Senior Notes due 2029, 4.950% Senior Notes due 2031, 5.050% Senior Notes due 2034, 5.300% Senior Notes due 2054 and 5.350% Senior Notes due 2064						8-K						001-39940						4.2						2/26/2024
4.9						Forms of Global Note for the registrant’s 5.90% Senior Notes due 2039						8-K						000-18225						4.1						2/17/2009
4.10						Forms of Global Note for the registrant’s 4.45% Senior Notes due 2020 and 5.50% Senior Notes due 2040						8-K						000-18225						4.1						11/17/2009
4.11						Form of Officer’s Certificate setting forth the terms of the Fixed and Floating Notes issued in June 2015						8-K						000-18225						4.1						6/18/2015
4.12						Form of Officer’s Certificate setting forth the terms of the Fixed and Floating Notes issued in February 2016						8-K						000-18225						4.1						2/29/2016
4.13						Form of Officer’s Certificate setting forth the terms of the Fixed and Floating Notes issued in September 2016						8-K						000-18225						4.1						9/20/2016
4.14						Description of Registrant’s Securities						10-K						001-39940						4.13						9/9/2021
10.1*						Cisco Systems, Inc. 2005 Stock Incentive Plan (including related form agreements)																														X
10.2*						Cisco Systems, Inc. Employee Stock Purchase Plan						10-Q						001-39940						10.7						2/16/2021

Exhibit Number						Exhibit Description						Incorporated by Reference																								Filed Herewith
												Form						File No.						Exhibit						Filing Date
10.3*						Cisco Systems, Inc. Deferred Compensation Plan, as amended						10-Q						001-39940						10.3						11/22/2022
10.4*						Cisco Systems, Inc. Executive Incentive Plan						8-K						000-18225						10.2						12/12/2017
10.5*						Form of Indemnity Agreement						8-K12B						001-39940						10.1						1/25/2021
10.6†						Third Amended and Restated Credit Agreement, dated as of February 2, 2024, by and among Cisco Systems, Inc., certain lenders party thereto, and Bank of America, N.A., as administrative agent, swing line lender and letter of credit issuer						8-K						001-39940						10.1						2/8/2024
10.7*						Letter Agreement, dated May 15, 2024, between Cisco and Gary Steele						8-K						001-39940						10.1						5/15/2024
10.8*						Separation Agreement and General Release, by and between Cisco Systems, Inc. and Maria Martinez						10-Q						001-39940						10.2						5/21/2024
10.9*						Separation Agreement and General Release, by and between Cisco Systems, Inc. and Jeff Sharritts						8-K						001-39940						10.1						7/19/2024
19.1						Insider Trading Policy																														X
21.1						Subsidiaries of the Registrant																														X
23.1						Consent of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm																														X
24.1						Power of Attorney (included on page 108 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K)																														X
31.1						Rule 13a–14(a)/15d–14(a) Certification of Principal Executive Officer																														X
31.2						Rule 13a–14(a)/15d–14(a) Certification of Principal Financial Officer																														X
32.1						Section 1350 Certification of Principal Executive Officer																														X
32.2						Section 1350 Certification of Principal Financial Officer																														X
97.1						Compensation Recovery Policy																														X
101.INS						Inline XBRL Instance Document																														X
101.SCH						Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document																														X
101.CAL						Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document																														X
101.DEF						Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document																														X
101.LAB						Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document																														X
101.PRE						Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document																														X
104						Cover Page Interactive Data File (Embedded within the Inline XBRL document and included in Exhibit 101)																														X

†			Certain of the exhibits and schedules to this Exhibit have been omitted in accordance with Regulation S-K Item 601(a)(5). Cisco agrees to furnish a copy of all omitted exhibits and schedules to the SEC upon its request.
*			Indicates a management contract or compensatory plan or arrangement.

None.

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this Report on Form 10-K to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

September 5, 2024												CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.
												/S/ CHARLES H. ROBBINS
												Charles H. Robbins
												Chair and Chief Executive Officer

POWER OF ATTORNEY

KNOW ALL PERSONS BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints Charles H. Robbins and R. Scott Herren, jointly and severally, his attorney-in-fact, each with the full power of substitution, for such person, in any and all capacities, to sign any and all amendments to this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and to file the same, with all exhibits thereto and other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, granting unto said attorney-in-fact and agent full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing requisite and necessary to be done in connection therewith, as fully to all intents and purposes as he might do or could do in person hereby ratifying and confirming all that each of said attorneys-in-fact and agents, or his substitute, may do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this Report on Form 10-K has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.

Signature			Title			Date
/S/ CHARLES H. ROBBINS			Chair and Chief Executive Officer			September 5, 2024
Charles H. Robbins			(Principal Executive Officer)
/S/ R. SCOTT HERREN			Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer			September 5, 2024
R. Scott Herren			(Principal Financial Officer)
/S/ M. VICTORIA WONG			Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer			September 5, 2024
M. Victoria Wong			(Principal Accounting Officer)

Signature			Title			Date
/S/ WESLEY G. BUSH			Director			September 5, 2024
Wesley G. Bush
/S/ MICHAEL D. CAPELLAS			Lead Independent Director			September 5, 2024
Michael D. Capellas
/S/ MARK GARRETT			Director			September 5, 2024
Mark Garrett
/S/ JOHN D. HARRIS II			Director			September 5, 2024
John D. Harris II
/S/ KRISTINA M. JOHNSON			Director			September 5, 2024
Dr. Kristina M. Johnson
/S/ SARAH RAE MURPHY			Director			September 5, 2024
Sarah Rae Murphy
/S/ DANIEL H. SCHULMAN			Director			September 5, 2024
Daniel H. Schulman
/S/ EKTA SINGH-BUSHELL			Director			September 5, 2024
Ekta Singh-Bushell
/S/ MARIANNA TESSEL			Director			September 5, 2024
Marianna Tessel