The New York Times is reporting that Cisco Systems will announce that it purchased the technology assets of Tribe.net this week. The New York Times is reporting that networking giant Cisco Systems will announce that it is purchasing social networking site Tribe.Net next week. The paper, citing anonymous sources, said that Cisco is purchasing the “underlying technology” assets of Tribe, an early mover in the social networking scene, but will not take over management of the Tribe.net social network. Cisco will combine Tribe’s technology with software it acquired in February with Five Across to help its customers — such as TV networks and cable TV companies, create online environments for their employees and for their customers. It’s not clear, from the Times article, when Cisco will announce the acquisition, but it’s likely that it will be part of SVP Charlie Giancarlo’s speech at next week’s VoiceCon Conference, where he will “discuss how companies use technology to enhance meaningful collaboration and gain a competitive advantage,” and “provide insight into the evolving communications experience within the workplace and will highlight next-generation technologies that are enabling new capabilities and categories of communications and collaboration,” according to the Cisco Web site. That all sounds well and good, but there’s skepticism already that Cisco has what it takes to play in the trendy social networking space. The times quotes Internet legend Marc Andreessen, now of Ning saying “The idea that Cisco is going to be a force in social netwokring is about as plausible as Ning bein ga force in optical switches.” Technology Industry