Linksys finds new home with Belkin
Linksys is undoubtedly the most well known consumer home router on the market today. Aquired by Cisco in 2003, Linksys had high hopes (and so did Cisco) of breaking into the emerging small business market as well as boost its consumer presence.
But like most companies that get gobbled up by the 800 pound gorilla that is Cisco, no major innovation ocurred with Linksys.
And with several snafu’s like the Cisco Cloud Connect fiasco, many Linksys owners have been less than impressed with Cisco’s influence.
Cisco themselves have not been happy in the consumer market either. Much of the demand follows the ebb and flow of the lastest hip gadget that comes out of silicone valley. This sale of Linksys to Belkin seems to be the final straw in the effort for Cisco to completely leave the consumer market.
Belkin/Linksys – A Better Fit
The Belkin/Linksys marriage seems like a much better fit. Belkin already has a large expanding presence in the consumer IT marketplace and adding Linksys to their line up will create a consumer powerhouse. Belkin is also located in Playa Vista, CA. This isn’t too far from Irvine where Linksys is located which will make day to day business extremely easy.
The deal is supposed to finalize in March 2013. After the Linksys purchase, Belkin will have about 30% of the home networking market share and will certainly add to its already powerful line up of products.
“Belkin’s ultimate goal is to be the global leader in the connected home and wireless networking space and this acquisition is an important step to realizing that vision,” CEO Chet Pipkin said in a statement.”
In the not-so-old days, the mantra was that “No one ever got fired for buying Cisco”. However for small businesses struggling in this economy, buying a big name router or switch from Cisco doesn’t make sense. Consumer IT is leading many parts of the market and Belkin maybe getting the better end of this deal.
In the end lets hope the consumer is the one who benefits with this new found marriage.
What are your thoughts? Who do you think will come out on top. Leave a comment below and let us know what you think!
4 Responses
That explains why when a Cisco rep called last week and I told him I was using Linksys business class switches, he made no comment and pretty much changed the subject. Hehehe.
Being an SMB IT admin, I don’t have the kind of budget required to buy Cisco products.
If the Belkin/Linksys mix doesn’t work I guess I’ll look at other brands…
Ah thank God
I had high hopes when Cisco bought Linksys. I was looking forward to a good line of home networking products that didnt have to be rebooted every month to keep the wireless working. I had always assumed the Cisco/Linksys relationship would be like the IBM/Lenovo one. Cisco would improve the linksys stuff, then later start adding their name to linksys products and then a few years later just drop the linksys name and have a fully established Cisco home products division. Kinda sad it didnt work out that way.
I never understood why Cisco purchased Linksys in the first place. They were never going to make the huge amount of money on selling Linksys hardware…it is all about selling service and support contracts and that is where Cisco’s bread and butter is and I doubt they ever made any money selling service and support contracts for SMB and consumer equipment.