Nambling Notes - March 23, 2004

Riverhead Bought -- Cisco Systems is buying Riverhead Networks, the California-based company that recently begun carving a niche for itself in the DDoS and security solutions sector. Cisco will pay $39 million in cash for all the outstanding shares in Riverhead that it does not already own and will convert outstanding Riverhead options to Cisco options. Riverhead will become part of Cisco's Internet Switching Business Unit and its products will be sold through Cisco sales channels. Founded in 2000, Riverhead has 44 employees.

Sportingbet Appointment -- Sportingbet has appointed Robert Holt, the current chairman and chief executive of Mears, as its board's new non-executive director. Holt will be taking over the position previously held by John Blowers, who is resigning after having served as director since Sportingbet began trading shares on the Ofex market five years ago. Holt also serves as a director for Host Europe and Staffing Ventures.

Geolocation -- Harrah's has contracted Quova, a provider and developer of Web geography services and technologies, to deploy its GeoPoint product for customer location verification on Harrah's LuckyMe online gaming web site.

The Survey Says. . . -- The Pew Internet & American Life Project has published a report indicating that American Internet users are growing increasingly more disillusioned with e-mail and as a result are using it less often, despite the attempts of the U.S. government to curb the spam problem by enacting federal legislation. The group's survey found that 29 percent of respondents are using e-mail less because of spam, 63 percent said they are less trusting of e-mail in general, and 77 percent said spam made being online unpleasant and annoying.