Cisco has been in a very bad position for about the last year. They have failed to continue innovation and are now facing being left behind. They also have strong competition in there core business of networking as they have priced themselves out the market.
As for there Tele-Presence. I sit right next to the system we have at my job. Its nice but certainly not worth the money the company paid to have it installed.
Cisco is essentially in the same position as RIMM.
I personally think the EU will see this request for what it is and kick it to the curb as they should.
Cisco's prices have nothing to do with where they are. In the Teleconferencing market they are doing well with WebEx, which both of my last two jobs used (one having tens of thousands of employees which used it). Cisco is the Oracle/IBM of high end Networking equipment. If you can't afford it, buy Linksys or something (which they also own, BTW). That pricey equipment they sell is not for Joe Blow and it's not for cheap startups and SMBs. It's enterprise-class equipment and it comes with expensive support contracts as well.
The people who use AS-400s, Oracle DB, DB2, etc. are buying Cisco equipment. The rest of those people can buy cheap Linksys and go to Office Depot to get Windows SBS on sale.
Comparing Cisco to RIM I'm not sure if that was sarcasm or not. I can write a few pages on why RIM is in the position they're in, but that might be a bit much. As a prior BB owner I could speak from experience.