Cisco to buy Linksys

[gcutler]

http://earthlink.com.com/2100-1035-993457.html?tag=newsfeed&subj=technews&part=earthlink&type=pt

I wonder what this means??? I love Linksys consumer products, perfect balance of price and quality. Will Cisco leave Linksys on its own or make changes that make us Linksys fans have to goto someone else???

[Bogy]

The article would lead you to believe that Cisco intends for the most part to leave Lynksys alone, using its overseas connections to expand Lynksys sales abroad. This could be a good thing. We can hope.

[blingbling]

I think they'll leave Linksys the way it is. This gives them a company with quality low end products to help them compete with Huawei. Huawei was a problem for Cisco before but now are even more formidable after their joint venture with 3Com.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Bogy
The article would lead you to believe that Cisco intends for the most part to leave Lynksys alone, using its overseas connections to expand Lynksys sales abroad. This could be a good thing. We can hope.

But looking at past experience with other buyouts like this, I fear the worse. IBM with Lotus is the example that is closest to my heart. There was a benefit in the cash and for a few years Lotus was left alone. Then after 2 or 3 years IBM officially engulfed Lotus (now called Lotus Software by IBM). And pretty much everything Lotus (Education, Web Sites, patch production) went the IBM way of doing things (less consumer friendly).

Maybe without IBM, Lotus would be a footnote in history, but I'm definatly not happy with the IBM takeover and worry any time I see something similar happening to another company i like (Linksys)