Computer network  vendor Cisco Systems is getting ready to sell home router maker Linksys. That's the word on Monday from Bloomberg news service, which cites "people with knowledge of the situation."
According to Bloomberg, Cisco has hired Barclays to find a buyer and handle the sale. In 2003, Cisco bought Linksys for a half-billion dollars, but the sale price now is expected to be considerably less because, as an aging consumer business, Linksys' home and small-office routers have low margins. Since its acquisition, Linksys routers have had a "Linksys by Cisco" brand.
The move is in keeping with Cisco's strategy of focusing on its enterprise software and services, and dropping its consumer business ventures. Earlier this year, Cisco closed its Flip consumer video camera business, eliminating nearly 8,000 jobs.
Dropping 'Aspects' of Consumer Business
Cisco had purchased Flip in 2009. As a pioneer in offering a tapeless, inexpensive digital home video camera, Flip was gaining fans, had good sales numbers and was getting good reviews. Some industry observers have speculated that Cisco was more interested in Flip's intellectual property for its business market than in selling cameras to consumers.
In April of last year, Cisco announced that it was exiting "aspects" of its consumer business and would "realign the remaining consumer business to support four of its five key company priorities -- core routing, switches and services; collaboration; architecture ; and video."
To accomplish that plan, it closed Flip and integrated Cisco Umi, its HD consumer webcam, into the company's Business TelePresence product line, among other steps. The company's consumer efforts, said CEO and Chairman John Chambers at the time, would focus on "how we help our enterprise and service-provider customers optimize and expand their offerings for consumers, and help ensure the network's ability to deliver on those offerings."
The Cloud Connect Uproar
In June, Cisco launched its Cloud Connect service and tried to push Linksys router owners to use it -- but ended up creating a storm of feedback from customers.
Cloud Connect provides a service that is intended to make it easier for customers to manage their network, routers, and devices on the network. But, when Connect was launched, the company also updated its new Linksys Smart Wi-Fi routers -- and then the problems began. (continued...)
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