It's been a long time since my negative experience and I should probably update my prejudices. Cheers.
I hope you read this,the reason why Cisco chooses to aquire rather than compete is the same reason those companies would do better without Cisco. I am glad for the founders who get aquired but at least the John Chambers era aquisitions did not fare well.
Spoken like a true Cisco executive. You could have just said "I'm supportive but it's out of my hands."
Or perhaps, no reply at all.
I'm not responsible for the buildings or teams in SJC15 and the OP knows that. The people who work with me at Cisco know that when I say I'll help, I do.
The same can be said for people who know David outside of Cisco too. I know David from SHDH, EveryDNS, & OpenDNS. He's a man of his word.
Caveating your offer of support three or four times signals hostility not helpfulness.
Any rational actor reading that statement would assume you’d forward their message onto HR without a real response. And make note of the complainer in question.
If you can’t be concrete with your words, why even bother?
"I'll see if I can give you some pointers of how to make some progress on that ask"
probably means
"I'm not the god damn office facilities manager, and I'm not spending my limited time and social capital to quarterback your request for you, but I'll see if I can figure out who in god's name in this 70,000+ person company you should talk to, and tips for how you might convince them to change their budget to give you free snacks".
I'm thrilled that Duo will be joining an amazing business filled with a deep bench of security talent and wonderful customers. It's a really strong fit with what Duo has already built and with where both teams are going, now together.
I guess I should mention I was founder / CEO of OpenDNS, was acquired by Cisco, previously led the Cisco Security business, and am still an executive at Cisco. So maybe a bit biased, but still factually on the mark. ;-)