Channel Beat: Will Chambers Announce Retirement From Cisco?

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In this week's top stories, rumors are circulating that Cisco CEO John Chambers may announce his retirement later this month at the Cisco Global Sales meeting.

Cisco has some 68,000 channel partners worldwide, and is one of the most influential IT companies in the world. Chambers has previously said he plans to retire sometime between 2012 and 2016. He declined to comment on his retirement plans in an interview with CRN, but he did say he has groomed his senior leadership team to ensure any transition will be smooth. Chambers' successor is likely to come from that team.

Marcelo Claure will take over as CEO for Sprint starting next week, replacing Dan Hesse. The announcement came just after reports that Sprint dropped its T-Mobile acquisition bid. Sprint currently trails behind Verizon and AT&T as the third-largest wireless carrier in the country. Claure joined the Sprint board of directors in January, and is currently the CEO and founder of Brightstar Corp.

Months after a disastrous security breach, Target is still paying for its errors. The retail company braced for low second-quarter numbers as it continues to pay off the massive 2013 credit card breach. Expenses related to the response are expected to reach $148 million, and could climb higher. Brian Cornell has taken over as the new Target chairman and CEO, and will oversee the adoption of a chip-and-pin payment system. Target also added a CIO security officer in May.

PUBLISHED AUG. 8, 2014