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With the technology industry quickly consolidating around a small group of very large players, Cisco Systems Inc. says it will make more acquisitions to incorporate the sector's biggest new trends into its core package of networking gear.

The multinational company has recently set itself up to compete against some of its own partners by expanding into the market for server computers. In doing so, it has made rivals of Hewlett-Packard Co. and International Business Machines Corp. , the world's two largest technology players.

Cisco's bold move has drawn its share of critics, who worry that the company is charging into too many new markets too quickly. In the past two months alone, it has bid more than $6-billion (U.S.) to bolster its presence in video conferencing and to stake out a spot in wireless communications. At the same time, HP has responded to Cisco's move into servers by spending $2.7-billion to bulk up its own networking unit with the purchase of 3Com Corp.

One of Cisco's top executives says the company is not setting its sights on any one company or market, but rather enacting a vision formed more than three years ago that sees new technologies being incorporated into a single network for both businesses and consumers.

Rob Lloyd, executive vice-president of worldwide operations for Cisco, says companies are crying out for a one-stop solution, specifically in the areas of virtualization and collaboration. (Virtualization is a technique that reduces the number of computer servers needed to handle data. Collaboration uses services delivered over the Internet to work more effectively.)

The goal is to "keep this block of technology as one system," Mr. Lloyd said in an interview in Toronto yesterday. Customers want to be able to integrate it without needing to become network specialists themselves and they want standards so that everything works together.

Another force in today's tech market is video, from high-end teleconferencing systems that fill entire rooms to small, high-definition cameras in consumers' pockets.

Both Cisco and HP each have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to develop advanced video-conferencing tools. But the two technologies can't talk to each other. Cisco offered $3.4-billion this month to buy Tandberg ASA of Norway, which focuses on video conferencing and technology to connect different protocols.

Cisco has a war chest of about $35-billion in cash to make acquisitions, although about $29-billion of it is tied up offshore and cannot be repatriated without large tax payments.

CISCO SYSTEMS (CSCO-Q)

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