Networking giant focuses on software acquisitions, partnerships in first quarter under Robbins Jeremy C. Owens/MarketWatchChuck Robbins gives his first major address to the media as Cisco chief executive at the company's Global Editor's Conference on Oct. 5, 2015.Chuck Robbins obviously doesn’t believe in taking it slow. The new Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO, -5.61% chief executive had a busy beginning at the helm of the networking giant, which he will sum up in a quarterly earnings report Thursday. The company announced major partnerships with two other tech titans—Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.34% and Ericsson AB ERIC, -1.39% —and four acquisitions that likely totaled half a billion dollars, all with a common theme: A frantic search for growth with software and services. Robbins promised this type of rapid-fire start last month in his first major address to the media as CEO at Cisco’s San Jose, Calif., headquarters, promising to continue predecessor John Chambers‘s brisk acquisition pace in order to capitalize on next-generation technology potential. “I do really feel we’re on the verge of a huge opportunity,” Robbins said in the keynote address of Cisco’s Global Editor’s Conference in early October. At that two-day event, Robbins and other execs seemed to focus exclusively on software and services, with network security, data analytics and the cloud popping up repeatedly as buzzwords, as well as the potential for acquisitions. “(Acquisitions are) an important part of how we differentiate in technology and drive growth financially,” Chief Strategy Officer Hilton Romanski said. The company has lived up to the promises: Cisco announced four acquisitions in the quarter, all focused on security and analytics. The largest, network-software firm Lancope Inc., cost Cisco just shy of $500 million, while smaller deals broughtsecurity consultants, data-analytics database capabilities, and a cloud-based video platform to the company. Those deals proved one of the biggest questions facing Robbins as he stepped into the position occupied for decades by Chambers, who was legendary for his rapid-fire acquisitions as Cisco CEO. The surprise has been the big-name partnerships Cisco has announced, both of which were in the works under Chambers but announced after he had passed the reins on to Robbins. Cisco linked up with fellow Silicon Valley tech titan Apple, which is trying to convince businesses to adopt its hardware, to ensure that Cisco software makes it onto iPads and iPhones in the workplace. Then, just three days before its quarterly earnings announcement, Cisco detailed a deal with Ericsson. The two sides said that the deal will bring each an additional $1 billion in revenue by 2018, as Cisco gets a foot in the door with Ericsson’s telecom customers and Ericsson obtains access to Cisco’s portfolio of software and services. “It should strengthen Cisco’s presence in the service provider vertical, expand its serviceable market, and better position it to address the opportunities of a digitized economy, including Internet of Things,” SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst Inder Singh wrote this week. All of Cisco’s moves highlight the importance of software and services for the company’s future. For the global leader in networking hardware, Cisco has talked little about the specs of its routers and switches, instead focusing on the software it sells to manage, secure and take advantage of the networks its builds. The main reason for that: Investors want growth, and there just isn’t much to be had in Cisco’s core business. Switches and routers accounted for $22.44 billion in sales in Cisco’s fiscal year that ended along with the CEO switch in late July, well more than half of Cisco’s total revenue of $37.75 billion, but that total has actually decreased since the 2013 fiscal year, when Cisco switches and routers collected $22.88 billion. Meanwhile, Cisco has found strong growth rates in its data center business—which comprises most of its cloud offerings—and security software, where much of its acquisition focus seems to be. Those two sectors produced growth of 55.6% and 29.6% respectively from the 2013 to 2015 fiscal years, easily the best among Cisco’s product groups. The deal with Apple is mostly focused on Cisco’s collaboration software, which it hopes will challenge Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -0.62% Alphabet Inc’s GOOG, -0.57%GOOGL, -1.14% Google for Work and newcomers like Slack Technologies Inc. for space on iPhones and iPads in the workplace. That group has suffered a decline in total revenue in the past two years, but has still become the third-largest offering Cisco has behind only switching and routing, so reinvigorating growth there seems essential. TimeCisco Systems Inc.Jan 15Mar 15May 15Jul 15Sep 15Nov 15US:CSCO $24$26$28$30$32 Finding a path to growth is essential for Cisco and other technology stalwarts that have lagged, such as Oracle Corp. ORCL, -1.05% , Hewlett-Packard—now split into HP Inc. HPQ, -4.38% and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co. HPE, -2.91% —and International Business Machines Corp. IBM, -1.47% “Growth has been ’like watching grass grow’ as these large traditional IT vendors face an Everest-like climb in their quest for success in this ever-changing IT landscape,” FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a Wednesday morning note. Analysts expect sales to grow less than 4% year-over-year in the quarterly report Cisco will release Thursday, with a FactSet survey showing average analyst expectations of $12.65 billion in revenue after Cisco posted $12.2 billion in the same quarter last year. Analysts project adjusted profit of 56 cents a share, the midpoint of Cisco’s forecast, after the company claimed profit of 54 cents a share a year ago. On Estimize, a platform for crowdsourced earnings estimates, the average of 184 projections was slightly rosier, at earnings of 57 cents a share on sales of $12.7 billion. More from MarketWatch