SAN JOSE, Calif., June 6, 1995 -- Cisco Systems has created five distinct business units that reflect its major networking product groups, and has named a vice president/general manager to head each group.

Each of the five business units -- Workgroup, ATM High End, Access, Core and IBM Internetworking -- will have its own marketing and engineering organization. The business unit structure formalizes a product sector grouping that has emerged with the company's expansion into new business areas and its acquisition over the past two years of several smaller firms.

"The networking market continues to change dramatically, with many small, aggressive players emerging to address key market sectors," said John Chambers, Cisco president and CEO. "By forming business units that focus on these sectors, we can maintain a critical balance between a large, powerful organization and a smaller entrepreneurial one. We will continue to leverage our economies of scale in such areas as manufacturing, sales and support, while empowering defined groups to be fast on their feet in terms of product development and time to market."

The five business units and their vice president/general managers, all reporting directly to Chambers, are:

• Workgroup, including all LAN switching, ATM workgroup and adapter products from the former Crescendo Communications and Kalpana, Inc., acquired by Cisco in September 1993 and December 1994, respectively. The unit is headed by Mario Mazzola, who had been vice president of the existing Cisco Workgroup Business Unit, which previously had included only Crescendo.

• ATM High End, including enterprise ATM switch products from the former LightStream Corp., acquired by Cisco in January 1995. The unit is headed by Paul Lazay, former president and CEO of Telco Systems, who joined Cisco earlier this month.

• Access, including all remote-access products: stand-alone routers, dial-up access servers, and software-based routers from the former Newport Systems Solutions, acquired by Cisco in August 1994. The unit is headed by Don Listwin, who had previously been Cisco's vice president of marketing.

• Core, including Cisco's traditional high-end Cisco 7000 series backbone routers, as well as strategic alliances focusing on the synergies between backbone routing, switching technologies and telecommunications services. The unit is headed by Frank Marshall, who had been Cisco's vice president of engineering.

• IBM Internetworking, including routers and software products designed to integrate existing IBM-based computer networks with local- and wide-area networks. The unit, based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., is headed by Selby Wellman, former CEO of FaxAmerica and a 15-year veteran of IBM, who joined Cisco earlier this month.

In addition, Cisco has redefined its centralized engineering and marketing organization to be responsible for the Cisco Internetwork Operating System(tm) (Cisco IOS(tm)) and network management products. Heading this team will be Stu Phillips, promoted from director of IOS to vice president of engineering; and a new marketing vice president yet to be named. Both will report to Chambers.

Chambers also announced the promotion of Ed Kozel, former vice president of business development, to the additional role of chief technical officer. Reporting to Chambers, Kozel is responsible for strategic relations, business development and network consulting. Charles Giancarlo, formerly vice president of product management and corporate development for Kalpana, has been named director of business development, reporting to Kozel.

Cisco Systems, Inc. is the leading global supplier of enterprise networks, including routers, LAN and ATM switches, dial-up access servers and network management software. These products, integrated by the Cisco Internetwork Operating System (Cisco IOS) link geographically dispersed LANs, WANs and IBM networks. Cisco is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and in the U.S. is traded under the NASDAQ symbol CSCO.