Cisco vs JPMorgan Chase: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: Cisco and JPMorgan Chase side by side

1. 1799JPMorgan Chase

   Manhattan Company Chartered

   Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton led the effort to obtain a New York charter for the Manhattan Company.

2. 1871JPMorgan Chase

   Drexel, Morgan & Co. Formed

   J. Pierpont Morgan and Anthony Drexel formed Drexel, Morgan & Co. in New York. The partnership developed into J.P. Morgan & Co., creating the Morgan banking lineage that would remain separate from Chase until the companies combined in 2000.

3. 1907JPMorgan Chase

   Panic of 1907

   During the Panic of 1907, J. Pierpont Morgan organized bankers and other private participants to support strained financial institutions. The episode became a defining part of the Morgan firm's history in an era before the Federal Reserve existed.

4. 1955JPMorgan Chase

   Chase Manhattan Created

   The Bank of the Manhattan Company merged with Chase National Bank to form Chase Manhattan Bank. This combination joined the firm's oldest 1799 predecessor with the Chase name and created the institution that later merged with J.P. Morgan.

5. 1984Cisco

   Company Founded at Stanford University

   Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner incorporate Cisco Systems in December 1984, commercializing multi-protocol router technology developed to connect Stanford's campus networks.

6. 1986Cisco

   First Commercial Router Shipped

   Cisco ships its first commercial multi-protocol router, the AGS (Advanced Gateway Server), generating $1.5 million in first-year revenue as the internet begins its transition from research network to commercial infrastructure.

7. 1990Cisco

   Initial Public Offering on NASDAQ

   Cisco goes public at a valuation of approximately $224 million, raising capital that would fuel its aggressive acquisition strategy. The IPO also precipitated the departure of both founders.

8. 1995Cisco

   John Chambers Becomes CEO

   John Chambers takes over as CEO from John Morgridge, beginning a 20-year tenure that would see Cisco grow from $2 billion to over $47 billion in annual revenue through more than 180 acquisitions.

9. 2000Cisco

   Briefly Becomes World's Most Valuable Company

   Cisco's market capitalization exceeds $500 billion in March 2000, briefly surpassing Microsoft and GE as the world's most valuable company before the dot-com crash erased over $400 billion in shareholder value.

10. 2000JPMorgan Chase

    Chase and J.P. Morgan Merge

    Chase Manhattan and J.P. Morgan & Co. completed their merger, combining commercial and consumer banking with investment banking and institutional services. JPMorgan Chase identifies this transaction as the formation of the modern company.

11. 2003Cisco

    Acquisition of Linksys

    Cisco acquires consumer networking company Linksys for $500 million, marking its entry into the home networking market and establishing a consumer brand that would later be divested to Belkin in 2013.

12. 2004JPMorgan Chase

    Bank One Merger

    JPMorgan Chase completed its $58.546 billion stock-for-stock merger with Bank One on July 1.

13. 2006JPMorgan Chase

    Jamie Dimon Becomes CEO

    Jamie Dimon succeeded William B. Harrison Jr. as chief executive on January 1. Dimon had joined JPMorgan Chase as president and chief operating officer when the Bank One merger closed and became chairman one year after becoming CEO.

14. 2008JPMorgan Chase

    Bear Stearns Acquired

    JPMorgan Chase completed its acquisition of Bear Stearns during the financial crisis.

15. 2008JPMorgan Chase

    Washington Mutual Operations Acquired

    After Washington Mutual Bank entered FDIC receivership, JPMorgan Chase paid $1.9 billion to acquire its banking operations, including assets, deposits, and qualified financial contracts under the transaction terms.

16. 2012Cisco

    Meraki Acquisition Launches Cloud-Managed Networking

    Cisco acquires cloud-managed networking startup Meraki for $1.2 billion, gaining the platform that would become central to its small-and-medium business strategy and its broader shift toward subscription-based management.

17. 2015Cisco

    Chuck Robbins Appointed CEO

    Chuck Robbins succeeds John Chambers as CEO, inheriting a mandate to transform Cisco from a hardware company into a software-and-subscription platform business capable of competing in the cloud era.

18. 2017Cisco

    AppDynamics Acquisition for $3.7 Billion

    Cisco acquires application performance monitoring company AppDynamics for $3.7 billion just days before its planned IPO, signaling Cisco's strategic commitment to the observability and application intelligence market.

19. 2020Cisco

    Webex Usage Surges During COVID-19 Pandemic

    Webex usage explodes to over 600 million meeting participants per month during the pandemic, temporarily positioning Cisco's collaboration platform as a critical piece of global remote work infrastructure.

20. 2023JPMorgan Chase

    First Republic Acquired from FDIC

    JPMorgan Chase acquired the substantial majority of First Republic Bank's assets and assumed deposits and certain liabilities from the FDIC.

21. 2024Cisco

    $28 Billion Splunk Acquisition Completed

    Cisco completes its largest-ever acquisition, purchasing cybersecurity and observability company Splunk for $28 billion in cash, pushing subscription revenue past 51% of total sales and establishing Cisco as a major force in security operations.

22. 2025Cisco

    AI Infrastructure Orders Exceed $2 Billion

    Cisco's AI infrastructure orders from hyperscale customers surpass $2 billion in FY2025, more than doubling management's original target and validating the company's investment in Silicon One-based networking platforms for GPU cluster interconnection.

23. 2025JPMorgan Chase

    FY2025 Net Revenue of $182.447B

    JPMorgan Chase reported U.S. GAAP total net revenue of $182.447 billion and net income of $57.048 billion. Its managed, fully taxable-equivalent segment presentation reported $185.581 billion of total net revenue across CCB, CIB, AWM, and Corporate.

24. 2026JPMorgan Chase

    Chase to Become Apple Card Issuer

    On January 7, 2026 Apple and Chase announced that Chase will replace Goldman Sachs as Apple Card issuer over about 24 months.

25. 2026JPMorgan Chase

    Co-Presidents Named

    Doug Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh were named co-presidents in June 2026, and Marianne Lake announced her retirement.

Acquisitions

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