Linksys by Cisco, commonly known as Linksys, is a major provider of home and small office network products and was founded in 1988 and acquired by Cisco Systems in 2003. Linksys also manufactures 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. Since 2008, all Linksys products sold are now packaged and branded as "Linksys by Cisco".

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Linksys by Cisco, commonly known as Linksys, is a major provider of home and small office network products and was founded in 1988 and acquired by Cisco Systems in 2003. Linksys also manufactures 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. Since 2008, all Linksys products sold are now packaged and branded as "Linksys by Cisco".

History

Linksys was founded in 1988 in a garage in Irvine, California. The founders, Janie and Victor Tsao, were immigrants from Taiwan who held second jobs as consultants specializing in pairing American technology vendors with manufacturers in Taiwan. The company's first products were printer sharers that connected multiple PCs to printers. From this it expanded into Ethernet hubs, network cards, and cords. By 1994, it had grown to 55 employees with annual revenues of $6.5 million.

The company received a major boost in 1995, when Microsoft released Windows 95 with built-in networking functions that expanded the market for its products. Linksys established its first U.S. retail channels with Fry's Electronics (1995) and Best Buy (1996). In 1999, the company announced the first Fast Ethernet PCMCIA Card for notebook PCs. In 2000, it introduced the first 8-port router with SNMP and QoS, and in 2001 it shipped its millionth cable/DSL router. By 2003, when the company was acquired by Cisco, it had 305 employees and revenues of more than $500 million.

Since acquiring Linksys, Cisco has continued to invest to expand the company's product line. In April 2005, Cisco Systems acquired VoIP maker Sipura Technology and made it part of its Linksys division. For a time, VoIP products based on Sipura technology were offered under the Linksys Voice System brand. (They are now sold by Cisco as part of the Linksys Business Series.) In July 2008, Cisco acquired Seattle-based Pure Networks, a vendor of home networking-management software. Pure Networks had previously provided the tools and software infrastructure used to create the Linksys Easy Link Advisor. Pure Networks was integrated into Linksys, with employees remaining in Seattle and continuing to work on making it easier for users to set up and manage home networks.