Cisco buys another company

Cisco (CSCO) can't seem to help itself. Each year it buys several companies, some of them big. Early today the router company agreed to buy Oslo-based Tandberg. The deal will close early next year and under the terms of the transaction Cisco, which has about $35 billion in cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet, will pay about $3 billion in cash for the company.

Tandberg makes video infrastructure and communications products which gets Cisco much more deeply into that sector. Cisco already owns Linksys and TV set-top company Scientific Atlanta. Its TelePresence unit is a force in video conferencing, and it has bought a number of other small businesses in related areas.