CEOs Sound Off: Cisco, Qualcomm, Kraft & More

Economic worries are still hanging over the market, and CNBC went straight to the top to get some answers. 

Cisco's New Profit Opportunity

"What we see from the customers today is mixed:  I think they all see the same challenges in the U.S., Asia-Pacific holds up strong, emerging markets continuing to do well; Europe, in spite of some economic slowdown, continues to do well.  My customers overall view this as a slowdown most likely to turn around the first half of the next calendar year."

- John Chambers, Cisco Chairman & CEO

Kraft Goes Back to School

"We're seeing some challenging costs in the economic environment, but I feel really good.  We're starting to turn the corner; we have excellent momentum at the mid-point of our turnaround, and I feel particularly good about our ability to do that in the face of some of these challenging economic costs."

- Irene Rosenfeld, Kraft Foods CEO

Qualcomm's Wireless Quest

"We're selling into a growing market with the third generation of wireless technology continuing to grow worldwide and take share worldwide, and in addition, you're seeing people are buying higher-end handsets, so-called smartphones that do more things - entertainment and computing and productivity - instead of just making phone calls, and those have higher prices and that also helps our business."

- Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm CEO

Telstra CEO on Tomorrow's Wireless

"Back in the 80’s we had a policy here in the U.S. that said let the market decide. We had TDMA, CDMA, GSM - all kinds of technologies and not one standard. Europe adopted one standard. The rest of the world essentially adopted one standard, other than Japan. They progressed a lot faster than the U.S."

- Solomon Trujillo, Telstra Chairman & CEO

Related articles from CNBC.com:

• Cisco CEO Sees Mixed Views on Economy
• Telecom CEO: The Trouble With U.S. Cellphones

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