Cisco’s $15B backlog: China COVID worries, impact of war in Ukraine

Global uncertainties created by ongoing COVID closures and the war in Ukraine continues to impact business for Cisco and its networking competitors. Cisco’s 3Q earnings announced this week show another round of backlog growth—this time to $15 billion with an additional $2 billion in software backlog and a $200 million earnings hit from the company pulling business from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Overall quarterly revenue of $12.8B was flat year-over-year while total product revenue was up 3%. Two big factors affected Q3 earnings the most, according to Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins. “The first is the war in Ukraine which resulted in us ceasing operations in Russia and Belarus and had a corresponding revenue impact,: he said. “The second relates to COVID-related lock down in China, which began in late March. These lockdowns resulted in an even more severe shortage of certain critical components.”