More on the Linksys sale [telecom]

Cisco to sell Linksys to Belkin

by Cyril Kowaliski, 9:46 AM on January 25, 2013

Practically 10 years to the day after being snatched up by Cisco, Linksys is bracing for another change of ownership. This time, Belkin says it has agreed to purchase Cisco's Home Networking Business Unit.including Linksys.from Cisco for an undisclosed sum. The deal is set to close some time in March.

According to Belkin, the acquisition will involve the "products, technology, . . . and talented employees" from Cisco's home networking division, plus the Linksys brand. There will apparently be a "strategic relationship," too, but the press release is a little vague on that topic. Here's the relevant snippet:

Belkin and Cisco intend to develop a strategic relationship on a variety of initiatives including retail distribution, strategic marketing and products for the service provider market. Belkin expects to preserve the Linksys brand and to honor product warranties. Belkin also points out that, once the deal goes through, its share of the home and small business networking market will swell to "approximately 30 percent" in the United States. (The firm already has its own line of networking products, naturally.)

Cisco purchased Linksys back in March 2003 for $500 million. At the time, Cisco wanted to "drive innovations into the consumer market." Now, according to Bloomberg, Cisco is ditching consumer operations (like its Flip camera unit, which it shuttered in 2011) in order to "focus on higher-margin sales to businesses." Bloomberg says Linksys sales have slipped by 35% over the past couple of years.

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- - Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)

***** Moderator's Note *****

Now, the way I read this, I think that Belkin is getting /all/ of Cisco's "Home"-class line, and that means the "Cisco" branded SOHO routers. However, the stories aren't clear on that, so I'd like to hear from anyone with better info.

Bill Horne Moderator

I don't have better info, just my impression of Cisco's product offerings using and reselling them for 20 years.

Unlike the vast majority of Cisco's purchases, where they tended to wrap the technology they wanted pretty intrinsicly into their main product offerings, Cisco always kept the "Linksys" brand very distinct and even the brand name "Linksys" was almost always utilized (with a few exceptions wavering back and forth in the middle).

I think if you visit

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you'll find what Cisco considers it's Linksys product line. For the most part, there was very little crossover into the next line up, their SMB products.

You could consider something like the "SRP500" line to be a Linksys/Cisco hybrid, Or the "RV" VPN router line, so it'd be a toss up about those. The Cisco 100/200/300/500 switches could also be a tossup.

But I think that certainly anything classic Cisco, such as their long running SMB/SOHO 800 series line would definately be staying with Cisco. Or any Catalyst switches, even those aimed at smaller markets.

With only a couple products crossing over, I don't think there'd be much quibbling about what Cisco is keeping or ditching.