CISCO SYSTEMS

(Corrects quote in paragraph 8)NEW YORK - Technology stocks led Wall Street slightly higher on Wednesday after comments from Cisco's chief executive bolstered optimism about the networking giant.

Cisco is acknowledging that it's made some missteps and is working to move forward and address its organizational complexity, lack of competitive products, focus, and time to market.

Following is the full text of an internal memo sent by John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) to the employees, where he talked about the company's execution issues, loss of credibility and making bold changes.

By Rob Cox and Robert Cyran, Reuters Breakingviews

By Rob Cox and Robert Cyran, Reuters Breakingviews

US stocks are up despite the poor ISM Services PMI data. The market is led by tech shares that benefited from the Nasdaq 100 index’s announced rebalancing.

The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Diamond Foods, Expedia, and ON Semiconductor. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: SemiLEDs, Prospect Capital, Cree, A-Power Energy Generation Systems, Aixtron, and Apple.

Cisco Systems Inc said on Tuesday it plans to buy privately held software company newScale Inc, in a deal that would ramp up its cloud computing services.

Top network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc plans to pay a dividend for the first time, helping appease investors' concerns about slowing growth by returning more of its ample cash hoard.

Cisco Systems Inc plans to pay a cash dividend to shareholders for the first time, helping appease investors' concerns about its growth and eroding margins and sending its shares up nearly 3 percent.

Shares of companies active in Friday's early trade are Nike Inc., Cisco Systems, Lorillard Inc., LDK Solar Co., Celera, Under Armour and Longtop Financial Technologies.

Credit Suisse has outlined three moves the Leo Apotheker-- new Chief Executive of Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) -- should consider.

China's Huawei Technologies Co has challenged the United States to launch a formal investigation into its business, in an attempt by one of the world's largest telecommunications equipment makers to clear its name from allegations that have blocked U.S. deals.

Access to the professional networking site LinkedIn was disrupted in China on Thursday, following online calls on other sites for gatherings inspired by protests against authoritarian regimes across the Middle East.

Israel-based EZchip Semiconductor is an acquisition target for a handful of communication integrated circuit companies and could be a logical fit with Marvell Technology.

The head of Cisco Systems Inc's consumer business group and the former chief of the Flip video camera maker is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.

Stocks finished narrowly mixed, amidst much speculation that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would voluntary resign from his office. (He later announced that will stay on until September elections).

New applications for unemployment benefits dropped to a 2-1/2-year low last week, pointing to a stronger footing for the labor market as the economic recovery gathers momentum. The fall in claims reported by the Labor Department on Thursday partly reflected the unwinding of a weather-related spike in late January but analysts said it was consistent with other indicators suggesting a strengthening labor market.

U.S. stocks were lower on Thursday and the Dow was on track to snap an eight-day rally, but hopes for a possible resolution in Egypt to the political unrest that has gripped the country for more than two weeks helped equities pare earlier losses.

Wall Street was weighed down by disappointing earnings from Cisco Systems, but stocks bounced off their lows on Thursday as investors saw weakness in the market as a buying opportunity.

U.S. stocks declined in early trade on Thursday despite better-than-expected jobs data with tech stocks particularly remaining weak as disappointing earnings from Cisco Systems weighed on the sentiment