Cisco Takes 'Strategic' Stake In Home Networking Group

MUNICH — Cisco has made a 'strategic investment' in home control specialist Zensys. The network giant's interest is directed towards Zensys' Z-Wave wireless home control technology.

Zensys refused to be specific on the total amount of Cisco's investment.

For Cisco’s Linksys division, the interoperability, reliability and low costs of Z-Wave were decisive factors for the investment, said Malachy Moynihan, Vice President Engineering and Marketing for Linksys. Z-Wave competes in the wireless home control market with Zigbee.

"We expect the digital home control market will be our next big chance. The co-operation with Zensys will give us the flexibility to expand our home control technology product range for our customers," Moynihan said.

Zensys intends to use a part of the Cisco investment to accelerate the integration of the Z-Wave technology into Linksys' product line-up.Zensys is the developer of the Z-Wave technology and dominant force in the Z-Wave alliance which now boasts 125 members, among them Danish home automation vendor Danfoss and Swiss computer peripherals vendor Logitech.