Cisco To Acquire Pure Networking For $120 Million

Cisco on Wednesday said it has agreed to buy Pure Networks, a maker of home-networking software and tools, for $120 million in cash.

Under the deal, Pure Networks' operations would remain in Seattle but be folded into Cisco's Linksys unit, which makes home-networking equipment, such as wireless routers. The acquisition is expected to be completed in its fiscal first quarter, which runs from August through September.

In buying Pure, Cisco said it's preparing for "Home Networking 2.0," which is when homes will have many different networked devices sharing applications and services, the company said.

"The acquisition of Pure Networks provides Cisco with a fully integrated home networking management solution that will also serve as the foundation for the development of new applications, tools and capabilities for consumers to use in an increasingly 'connected life' at home, at work and on the go," Cisco said in a statement.

Pure currently provides Cisco with software infrastructure and tools to create the latter company's Linksys Easy Link Advisor, which enables consumers to set up, organize, manage, secure, and use a home network. The acquisition will be the basis for new multimedia-enabled applications, tools, and capabilities for LELA.

"Pure Networks' network management innovations will provide Cisco and Linksys with a key underpinning to take home networking to the next level of ease of use," Ned Hooper, senior VP of Cisco's corporate development and consumer group, said.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, Cisco introduced a barrage of multimedia products. Products from the Linksys division ranged from home networking monitoring systems to high-speed gaming products.