Cisco makes network equipment (selling shovels in a gold rush), so a high valuation at the time wasn't out of the ordinary, considering Cisco was actually profi

Cisco makes network equipment (selling shovels in a gold rush), so a high valuation at the time wasn't out of the ordinary, considering Cisco was actually profitable during the dotcom boom, when many newly public companies were 'pre-revenue'. I think of it as similar to Nvidia, who also sells shovels.