Cisco Ends Reseller Agreement with H-P
Cisco Systems (CSCO) on Thursday said it was dropping H-P (HPQ) from its reseller program, capping off a year in which the two tech giants have increasingly encroached on one another’s turf.
The change, which will take effect April 30, means that H-P will no longer have access to information like Cisco’s product roadmaps, which help partners make long-term plans for how to position Cisco gear. H-P will still be able to sell Cisco products to its customers, but it won’t be eligible for rebates and other incentives.
Cisco’s move is the latest sign of tension between the one-time partners. The networking giant used to count then H-P CEO Carly Fiorina among its board members, and H-P used to encourage its sales force to push Cisco’s networking gear. But last March Cisco unveiled a server system that competes with one of H-P’s core products. In November H-P bought 3Com so that its networking division could better take on Cisco.
