Linksys, one of the biggest router companies and currently a subsidiary of Cisco, is being bought by one-time competitor Belkin. According to a press release, Belkin and Cisco have agreed to a sale of Cisco’s Home Networking Business Unit, which includes employees, products, and technology along with the Linksys brand. That brand isn’t going away, but the sale means Belkin will tie up a large portion of home and small business networking: the company says it will have 30 percent of that market when the sale closes.
Belkin buys Linksys home router business from Cisco, giving it 30 percent of the market
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
Belkin hasn’t disclosed terms of the deal, and future plans aren’t spelled out in detail. For now, people with Linksys products will continue to get support, and Belkin says it wants to help “grow Linksys’ market presence” in the future. Among other things, that means an expanded retail presence and unified firmware across both lines. Competitors like Netgear or D-Link, meanwhile, will have to contend with a conglomerate of two major manufacturers as Cisco ends its foray into home networking.
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