Cisco shares plunge 4% after a report says Amazon could go after Cisco's core networking business

Mike Blake/Reuters

Chuck Robbins, Cisco CEO

• Cisco shares dropped on Friday after tech news outlet The Information reported that Amazon is considering making it's own networking hardware.
• The move would directly go after Cisco's core networking business.
• Networking companies Arista Networks and Juniper Networks also saw their shares drop in response to the report.

Cisco shares plunged more than 4% on Friday after the Information reported that Amazon Web Services may be going after the company's core business.

According to The Information, Amazon is considering building its own data center network switches - devices that could compete with Cisco's own networking equipment, the core of its business. Networking companies Arista Networks and Juniper Networks also saw their shares drop in response to the report.

Amazon already manages massive cloud computing data centers, which could have given it the know-how and expertise to get into the networking hardware manufacturing market. Amazon Web Services is considered the leading cloud computing platform in the market, with a sizable lead over rivals Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

Neither Amazon nor Cisco responded to request for comment from Business Insider.

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