The facts are straight forward. Cisco has sold its consumer/SoHo/small business networking unit to Belkin. An investment to go downstream made a decade ago by Cisco has come to an end. Sadly – I’m honor-bound to report this news.
Privately-held Belkin will continue to sell and support the Linksys brand and perhaps discover the magic that didn’t happen for Cisco. Cisco is now free to focus on its enterprise niches where it makes its riches. I don’t do good-byes nearly as well as “Hellos” so I’ll share a few thoughts.
- Cisco has been and will hopefully continue to be a supporter of the SMB Nation. In part, its support was based on the Linksys connection (this year marks a decade since Cisco first entered the SMB Nation realm).
- Linksys was very well-positioned in the lower-end of our community for people who enjoyed working with the DIY crowd who bought Linksys at retail stores (Fry’s, BestBuy) and later became SMB customers for our MSPs!
- Linksys enjoyed a “window” of opening with its phone systems when Microsoft Response Point was withdrawn from the market in the 2009 timeframe. Partners like Jay Weiss of ComputerHMO (Pasadena, CA) eagerly embraced both Linksys and Cisco phone systems. That dynamic has now changed.
- Partners and resellers. What’s it mean for “us” with this new reality. Not sure but to be honest, so much of the Cisco (and Linksys) has been sold through distribution in recent years that the disti channel will likely rule the roost.
Stay tuned.
