Belkin says they will continue to offer support and guarantees for existing owners of Linksys products and further increase the market share of network equipment for home users. Belkin intends to keep the Linksys market name, and they have announced a strategic collaboration with Cisco in the distribution, marketing and product development for network providers.

Cisco in mid-December of last year announced the withdrawal from the market of network equipment for the home user, and increased focus on solutions for professional and business segments. Cisco bought Linksys in 2003 for $500 million and as an aid in finding a new owner hired a Barclays bank. Belink’s acquisition of Linksys should be formally completed by the end of March this year, but the financial part of the transaction has not been officially released.

[Ed – When Cisco picked up Linksys it was thought that they would be able to give more respect to the name (with the small Cisco logo) unfortunately even having Cisco stamped on the side of the Linksys devices did not help bring up the standards and Cisco themselves took a small hit from being tied to what most in the industry consider low-quality products. Cisco’s move to refocus on enterprise and business products is also partly due to pressure from companies like HP who have managed to grab additional market share due to their lower cost and (in many cases) better support and warranty. We expect to see Cisco push harder to re-make themselves during 2013 and distance themselves from the Linksys years.]

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