Cisco to sell Linksys to Belkin, will exit home networking market

I wonder if the Linksys name will be retained along with the WRT54GL? Probably not.

 

Cisco Cloud Connect was a PR disaster for Cisco. Forcing a firmware auto update that required you connect to their cloud service was the last straw for many former fans of Linksys routers. They should have stuck with developing reliable router hardware instead of trying to develop cloud services that most customers don't need or want. Cisco did finally cave from their overall cloud plan and allowed customers to turn the cloud connect off but by that time too much damage had been done. Belkin will probably release the same router hardware designs under the Linksys brand name but minus the cloud features and Cisco label. This will boost Belkin's market share but more consumers will move strongly toward the other players in the consumer router market. Netgear will continue to hold its market share. The Asus consumer routers with OpenWRT firmware flexibility and highly acclaimed award winning hardware designs are becoming what the popular Linksys brand of routers used to be before Cisco acquired them.