Another Demo is coming up this January 28-30. Smart startup founders will save their best pitches not for the bored audience — trust us, they'll all be ignoring you and sending BlackBerry emails. Instead, buttonhole the guys with money to spend, starting with reps from Google, Microsoft and Cisco. Here's who they're sending.

Remember CinemaNow, the Marina Del Rey-based movie-downloads service backed by Lionsgate, Microsoft, and Cisco, among others? Its video-streaming service has been left in the shadows by Apple, Netflix and Amazon.com, but CinemaNow's found a way to survive: porn.

Frank Calderoni, as expected, has risen to become Cisco's CFO, after the previous CFO's retirement. A document filed with the SEC reveals that among other compensation, Calderoni will receive 75,000 units of restricted stock, currently worth $1.8 million. Unlike stock options, which are worthless if the stock falls below their exercise price, restricted stock is earned even if the stock falls. Telling, I think, that Cisco's top finance executive doesn't want to make a big bet on the stock. (A side note: I found Calderoni's photo on a curiously named website: tools.cisco.com. Good to know Cisco believes in full disclosure!.)

With light trading volume because of the holiday, Apple stock hit an all-time high today, closing at $198.80. The company now has a market cap of $174 billion, and has risen 134.32 percent on the year. Apple is now worth about as much as networking giant Cisco. Shareholders are likely reactiong to predictions strong holiday sales for the company, plus possible introductions of new products at the Macworld Expo in January.

Once upon a time, Charlie Giancarlo was Cisco's crown prince, the heir certain to CEO John Chambers. As chief development officer, he oversaw a vast swathe of future products. But his power was recently cut back, with R&D responsibilities handed over to a council of executives. Now Giancarlo has resigned, and he's joining Silver Lake Partners, the tech-buyout fund. Not for long, though, we'd bet. Private-equity funds like Silver Lake and Elevation Partners are proving convenient places to park CEOs-in-waiting. Think of Giancarlo's career move as a temporary exile as he searches for a new kingdom.

Cisco says its office's new cubicle-free design promotes efficiency, increases group work productivity, and makes the environment more pleasant. Which makes the redesign seem like a really good idea. Until you hear about the whole back-and-neck injuries thing.

We knew Cisco was making a push into social networking, but this is ridiculous. A misprinted toll-free number on a product from its Linksys subsidiary led to a sex-talk chat line promising "nasty girls," as gadget blog Gizmodo found. Honestly, Cisco, if we wanted porn ads, we'd have stuck with Facebook.

Some Silicon Valley CEOs rally the troops by hosting ski trips or offering free iPhones. And then there's Cisco CEO John Chambers. He uplifts his workers through internal corporate communications — a webcam set up in his office which allows him to record video missives on his latest travels and to pooh-pooh the last quarter's earnings report. Comments on the videos are enabled, and, some may say, enabling. Unlike the snarky criticisms you see on YouTube or other video sites, all the comments after Chambers's clips are a hallelujah chorus. Cisco's amen corner, after the jump.

Tech bellwethers are dragging the Nasdaq composite down. So much for tech's immunity to Wall Street's subprime crisis. The Nasdaq suffered its largest two-day decline in more than five years. Cisco's cautious outlook is blamed as the trigger for the broad selloff. The network equipment manufacturer has fallen more than 12 percent in two days since its announcement. Research In Motion has also fallen more than 12 percent. Apple declined 10 percent. IBM has tumbled nearly 5 percent. And even Google is down nearly 3 percent. Do I hear a bubble starting to hiss air? [WSJ]

Network-equipment giant Cisco reported earnings of $2.2 billion on $9.5 billion in revenue this past quarter — a 37 percent jump in profits and a 17 percent rise in sales year-over-year. Despite the gains, shares in Cisco fell 4 percent in after-hours trading. [AP]

Cisco is launching a $16 billion expansion into China. The networking giant will double its manufacturing in China, increase venture capital in the region and support technology education. For that last part, read "get local governments to subsidize training high schoolers on router configuration." It's also forming an agreement with the Alibaba Group to develop business services for small and medium-size companies in Asia. [AP]

Network-equipment giant Cisco Systems is buying WiMax equipment maker Navini for $330 million in Cisco's 124th acquisition. Navini owns a number of patents related to their SmartBeaming technology that may give Cisco an edge in WiMax, a wireless-Internet technology with much longer range than Wi-Fi. Hopefully everyone has their tax documents in order — we hear that can be a problem at Cisco. Navini had been backed by Sequoia, among numerous others, but VentureBeat points out Sequoia declined to participate in its sixth funding round last May. Sequoia Partner Mike Goguen is a Navini board member and we presume Sequoia is glad to cash out if they didn't think the company was worth continued investment. (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)

A company called ESN recently sued Cisco for patent infringement. But ESN didn't own the patent in question. Whoops. A judge didn't take kindly to the matter and quickly dismissed the case. (Photo by ngader)

Googlers go for Barack Obama. So does Microsoft founder BIll Gates, but his minions dig Hilary Clinton. Over 70 percent of the $929,829 contributed by Cisco, Google and Microsoft employees to presidential campaigns through the first three quarters of 2007 went to Democrats. [eWeek]

Cisco wants to run social networks for its customers — or, as industry jargon would have it, "back-end" them. Which sounds exactly like exactly the kind of activity people get on social networks to arrange. [Silicon Alley Insider]

Because we're nothing if not charitable, here's some schadenfreude to cheer up former AOLers in Virginia. At least you're not a former Cisco employee in Brazil. While you're wallowing in your own drunken misery, a good number of ex-Cisconians are in a South American prison, reportedly accused of stealing $825 million from the Brazilian government. Details on Operation Persona after the jump.

We asked if you would pay extra to buy a Googler's bookshelf — listed, for a premium price, on Craigslist. If you work at Cisco, apparently the answer's yes. [Valleywag]

Never have I been more disappointed in an online video than this one pointed out to me by John Paczkowski of AllThingsD, in which Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley from fire-breathing, '70s glam-rock band KISS are asked what they think of the "connected life." No, they don't scream in the Cisco rep's ears and tell online viewers to "LICK UP MY BROADBAND!" Instead, Simmons and Stanley act like the most compliant of Federated Media spokesbloggers and muse about how everything on the Internet is now available to us, thanks to the Internet, and gosh darn it, why aren't computer screens bigger?

Sequoia Capital's Michael Moritz waxed ornithological at today's Fortune iMeme conference, said venture capitalism is "like bird spotting" and called Cisco an "ugly duckling." [VC Ratings]