Cisco Buying Linksys for $500M
By Karen Brown -- Multichannel News, 3/20/2003 7:12:00 AM
Cisco Systems Inc. opened a big door into home networking Thursday with the announcement that it will acquire leading consumer-products provider Linksys Group Inc. for $500 million in stock.
The deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter, calls for Cisco to issue $500 million in common stock to acquire Irvine, Calif.-based Linksys and all outstanding employee stock options.
Once the transaction is complete, the company and its 300 employees will become an operating subsidiary of Cisco. Linksys CEO Victor Tsao will continue to lead the subsidiary, reporting to Charlie Giancarlo, Cisco's senior vice president and general manager of product development.
The deal has been approved by the Linksys and Cisco boards of directors.
Linksys has become a player in the cable home-networking field, snagging one of the first CableHome 1.0 certifications for a home-networking gateway during the last testing round at Cable Television Laboratories Inc.
Last year, it also struck a deal with then-AT&T Broadband to provide home-networking gear for a trial in the MSO's Seattle system.
"Linksys has captured a strong position in this growing market by developing an extensive, easy-to-use product line for the home and small office," Cisco president and CEO John Chambers said in a release.
"This acquisition is a solid example of Cisco's strategy to broaden its end-to-end portfolio of network solutions into high-growth markets such as wireless, voice-over-IP [Internet protocol] and storage-area networking," he added.
No related content found.
Featured Company
-
Grab Networks
Created from the merger between Anystream and Voxant Media, Grab Networks offers a comprehensive video operating system and syndication network for profitably publishing video anywhere on the Internet. The system automatically manages, transcodes and tags video assets- turning cl..more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
