Cisco today said that after the close of markets on Tuesday, the company will announce a significant news (we're guessing a major acquisition) which will "forever change the Internet and its impact on consumers, businesses and governments." We first learned of the news from MarketWatch.

Cisco has been rumored to be about to purchase almost every interesting company in the technology field over the last decade. The company's closest kept secret has been the degree of real interest it has in EMC. While such an acquisition would be huge in the financial markets, it is unclear why it would forever change the Internet. Also, the rumor mill around that partnership has more or less died.

One may feel tempted to think that Cisco wants to get in the bandwidth game, chasing after Google's recent announcement: a trial of open-access, fiber-to-the-home Internet service at speeds of 1Gbps in select locations. But Cisco claims that they have no interest in being a service provider. David McCulloch, Spokesperson at Cisco, told MarketWatch, "our strategy remains to partner very closely with service providers to enable advanced new telecommunications services versus building out public networks ourselves." We wonder if they protest too much, especially since the company just said it was also bailing on WiMAX. My bet is that it's someone in streaming video, or possibly someone in wireless. A streaming video play would make more sense for a company like Cisco. Either they've built something, or they've bought someone.

I know, I know! They are buying Chatroulette! I kid.

So we invite you, for the honor of having great bragging rights, to lay down your bets on just who is going to get a big check from Cisco tomorrow (or more likely, after the deal clears). Or, if you don't think an acquisition is in the works, what magical announcement might they make?

Update: It looks like the Internet won't be changing all that much after all.