Belkin Completes Acquisition of Linksys

[btarunr]

Belkin today announced the completion of its acquisition of Linksys. Linksys' technologies, including its routers and the popular and innovative Smart Wi-Fi portfolio and services, will be managed and maintained as a separate brand and product portfolio.

"Linksys has a rich heritage, a passionate customer base and a wide product line, all of which fueled our decision to acquire the company and our plan to maintain the Linksys brand," said Chet Pipkin, CEO of Belkin. "The Linksys portfolio will continue to exist and evolve to include even richer user experiences and network management functionality. Smart Wi-Fi is an innovative and easy way for consumers to stay connected to their home network and we look to continue investing in it by adding more features and products."

Linksys customers and retailers will continue to see new Linksys products come to market in the near future, starting with several announcements in the spring time frame. By maintaining the Belkin and Linksys brands in home networking, Belkin aims to address a broader range of consumers with distinct networking solutions and will create the premier ecosystem for mobile devices and smart homes.

Support for Linksys products remains available through the existing Linksys support channels. For service, Linksys customers should go to the support page on the Linksys website. All valid warranties will be honored for current and future Linksys products.

"A lot of exciting things are happening in today's connected lifestyle segment, and we are honored to continue the Linksys brand and enable new connected experiences," added Pipkin. "Linksys and Belkin are now one team. We are ready to do fantastic things as a team and deliver products that delight consumers and support the increasingly connected, mobile world."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Jetster]

They have there work cut out for them

 

[Jorge]

Belkin was a quality operation years ago but they lost their way IMO. Linksys has never impressed me at all. Their products have been woefully poor IME so I think Belkin bought a loser.

 

[tacosRcool]

Belken products from what I hear aren't too great. This buyout will hopefully improve their other products

 

[remixedcat]

R.I.P. Linksys 1998-2013

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

LOL how funny when we have another active thread slamming Belkin networking gear etc as crap and in which I said they should "stick to mice and keyboards".

 

[Batou1986]

oh boy the two company's I hate most in networking equipment have merged.

 

[RejZoR]

I'm not sure why you all hate Linksys. I've had their WRT54GL and now E4200 and they were both fantastic routers. Especially E4200 which is till own. Stock firmware is pretty good and rock stable and i'm using TomatoRAF which is even more powerful.

With Belkin however, i'm not sure. Their power surge protectors are good, but apart from that i never really liked their wireless gear. It would be like saying: "Yes, NVIDIA is great at manufacturing fridges". It just doesn't compute. Where Cisco and Linksys, they were both strong in networking gear and it just made sense.
But we'll see. Maybe Belkin will change their attitude and actually start making worthy hardware with good support. We'll see...

 

[remixedcat]

I had a belkin keyboard that died quick within 2 yrs.

all my prehips are Microsoft or Logitech and both have been awesome.

 

[OnePostWonder]

I also own a Linksys WRT54GL and it's been a great router; this is further reinforced by the massive amount of positive reviews it has across the internet. On the other hand, we had a Linksys BEFSR41 that bit the bullet, and prior to that gave us all kinds of trouble. So, I'm not saying Linksys doesn't make some crappy products. If anyone can lay out a decent argument about why Linksys is a crappy brand overall, please do.

As far as Belkin is concerned, I don't think they ever made much of a name for themselves in networking equipment, possibly for good reason. I can say that they made the best PS/2 to USB adapter out there, specifically the F5U119-E.

 

[newtekie1]

Every company makes bad products and good products. The BEFSR41 line was total shit, but the WRT54G v1-4 and WRT54GL were the routers to have in their day(but they are showing their age now with no wireless n support and slow CPUs).

The E1000 routers were excellent values for the money, and the E3000 was awesome as well(I currenly use an E3000 as my router at home).

 

[Atomic77]

Linksys is cool my USB adapter for getting online is that brand. Belkin I don't know much about but they are good too.

 

[jihadjoe]

Belkin knows they need help, which is why they bought Linksys. I'm hoping Belkin actually lets the Linksys engineers off their proverbial leashes and allow them to make something good. This can be a merger with positive results -- Belkin with Linksys' engineers, and Linksys without the shackles imposed by Cisco.

Anyone who got to play with the original WRT54G knows how good Linksys can be.

 

[newtekie1]

I'm hoping Belkin actually lets the Linksys engineers off their proverbial leashes and allow them to make something good.

I'm hoping this too. When they were with Cisco they had to basically cripple their products so they wouldn't compete with Cisco's higher end offerings. Most of the time that crippling was with software, which is why their products rocked with 3rd party firmware. Now that they are with Belkin I hope they are allowed to actually make good firmware. But that is assuming the Linksys engineers are still with Linksys...

 

[remixedcat]

blekin offers virtually no support and any new linksys range they put out will not be very good. (also belkin will prolly not allow any new linksys brand routers to have support 3rd party fimware) my sis had a belkin and it barely lasted a day... and the thing couldn't even keep proper system time.

you never know they could come up with some sugarcoated shit excuse... it's part of belkin's 'family" image. I personally have never even trusted thier keyboards. I had one... paid close to 70 for it and it barely lasted 2 years and I took good care of it. I'm sticking to Logitech and Microsoft hardware for my prehips and Amped for my routers/networking hardware.

 

[sy5tem]

all the linksys we sold are dying or are death after 2 years including WRT54GL v2 ...

linksys design can't evacuate heat fast enough to save component life.

so good riddance anyways, we are using asus router with great success...

 

[PopcornMachine]

all the linksys we sold are dying or are death after 2 years including WRT54GL v2 ...

linksys design can't evacuate heat fast enough to save component life.

so good riddance anyways, we are using asus router with great success...

I am using a WRT54G I've had for over 5 years.

Ignorant blanket statements like this, that ignore even previous posts in this thread, make me want quit going to forums altogether.

Why don't humans think before they post?

 

[timta2]

all the linksys we sold are dying or are death after 2 years including WRT54GL v2 ...

linksys design can't evacuate heat fast enough to save component life.

so good riddance anyways, we are using asus router with great success...

My parent's WRT54G that has been running 24/7 flawlessly for almost 10 years (in July) is laughing at your post.

I bought the BEFSR41 when it was a brand new product, first on the shelves, back in 98' or 99' and it ran flawlessly until 2006 until my brother's dog peed on it.

Personally I think a lot of the problems with Linksys products have been firmware. Find the right version (or third party) and you're good.

 

[Jetster]

I had a E4200 that was a great router. Never had a hick up. And I bought it refurbished from Cisco. Linksys is not the issue here. I also had a WRT54GL that work fine for years. There was a time that every house had a Linksys router