Linksys

Linksys by Cisco, commonly known as Linksys, was a major provider of home and small office network products, founded in 1988 and acquired by Cisco Systems in 2003[1]. Linksys manufactured broadband and wireless routers, consumer and small business grade Ethernet switching, VoIP equipment, wireless internet video camera, AV products, network storage systems, and other products. Linksys products were widely available in North America off-the-shelf from both consumer electronics stores (CompUSA and Best Buy), internet retailers, and big-box retail stores (WalMart). Linksys' significant competition as an independent firm were D-Link and NetGear, the latter for a time being a brand of Cisco competitor Nortel.

In 2007, Cisco CEO John Chambers described the longterm plan to kill the independent Linksys brand: "It will all come over time into a Cisco brand. The reason we kept Linksys' brand because it was better known in the US than even Cisco was for the consumer. As you go globally there's very little advantage in that." From 2008, all Linksys products sold were packaged and branded as "Linksys by Cisco"; some former Linksys products were merged into the "Valet" brand (albeit with a large Cisco logo and smaller Linksys name still on the product). The formerly-independent Linksys website presently redirects to Cisco's. Small-business inquiries into former Linksys products are directed to Cisco's products and reseller network.