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I used to work for Cisco at Linksys and this is far from truth. Although Linksys operated pretty much as their own division, Cisco EOLed a lot of successful Lin
by orky56 16y ago
I used to work for Cisco at Linksys and this is far from truth. Although Linksys operated pretty much as their own division, Cisco EOLed a lot of successful Linksys products in the SMB market since they might compete with Cisco's. Also, Linksys had and still has a stronger brand presence among consumers which Cisco resented a bit. This led to a rather long brand transition that made things pretty difficult at Linksys' end. Lastly when Linksys needed the deep pockets of Cisco for breaking into new consumer product markets, Cisco was always hesitant despite successful market research and product development on Linksys' end.
Relatively, it's been better than most acquisitions but things are definitely not that rosy.
- gamble 16y agoInteresting to hear from an insider. Cisco is very good at getting the media to write about how skilled they are with acquisitions. Do you think it's more marketing than reality?
- orky56 16y agoSad to say but they are better than most when it comes to acquisitions. I think that's more due to the fact that their acquisitions are usually strategically related to what they want to do. The big exception has been Flip. Although they are a great company, their limelight was too short for a company like Cisco to get recurring growth over a long period with this push into the consumer space.