Net demand boosts Cisco profits

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Booming internet traffic helped Cisco Systems post a 34% rise in profit for the three months to the end of April.

Revenue growth was supported by service providers upgrading their systems to cope with new applications, such as online video, the company said.

Cisco, the world's biggest maker of internet equipment, said third-quarter net income topped Wall Street forecasts at $1.9bn (£955m), up from $1.4bn.

The firm said it expected growth to continue, boosted by overseas markets.

But shares in the California-based company, the top supplier to businesses of the routers and switches that drive the internet, dropped in after-hours trading in New York as some traders had wanted a larger earnings surprise.

""It was essentially a very in-line, very expected quarter," said Ehud Gelblum, an analyst at JP Morgan.

"The top line beat by a tad, but not enough to make anyone do anything."

Third-quarter sales were up 21%, boosted by its acquisition of cable television box seller Scientific-Atlanta. Guidance for the current quarter is for sales to rise by 15-16%.