Cisco to drop Linksys brand

gallery

Cisco is to kill off the Linksys brand as the company's chief executive said that he wanted to see no division between consumer and business networking products.

John Chambers told a European press briefing that he would have never entered the consumer market "if I thought it was standalone or a market by itself".

He said that he believed devices used in the home would also go into business.

"We said in 1999, we felt the future would be a network of networks," Chambers said. "People wouldn't view their home network different from their service provider network or their enterprise network. All the business leader will care about is to be given access from whatever device he is most comfortable with."

Chambers added the Linksys brand had reached the end of its working life and would now be folded into the Cisco brand. He said the brand was kept alive for as long as it was because it was well known in the US, but he realised that in going global there was "very little advantage in that."

He added that the re-branding signalled a revamp in the branding of the networking giant.

"We've changed everything in terms of our logo and our mark, and how we want to be viewed, from the ease of use of our products to differentiation," he said.

More of Chamber's thoughts were captured in the video below.

Email to a friend

Print this page