Cisco's sale of Linksys has been making news ever since the company hired Barclays to help with the sales but the exact buyer was a mystery, at least until today. Belkin has apparently stepped up and struck a deal with Cisco. The deal should be finalized by March this year.
Cisco has been behind Linksys for 10 years as it bought the company back in 2003 for US $500 million. Earlier, Bloomberg reported that it is highly unlikely that Cisco will be getting those US $500 million back due to quite low margins in that part of the home network market.
Cisco has been slowly pulling out of the consumer business and is focusing on big businesses. Existing customers need not worry as Belkin announced that it will maintain the Linksys brand, offer full support for Linksys products and honor all valid warranties.
The companies did not reveal any precise details regarding the actual deal.