Cisco's Consuming Ambitions

Cisco's Consuming Ambitions: "Now, Cisco is cranking up its plans for Linksys. Chambers says it will use the Linksys brand on a growing portfolio of low-end products, both for consumers and increasingly for the medium- and small-business market.
To that end, the company has arranged its first two consumer-oriented acquisitions since buying Linksys. In April, it bought Sipura Technology, which makes the gear that consumers need in order to use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone-calling plans from the likes of Vonage. And on July 22, Cisco bought Denmark-based KiSS Technology, which makes new-fangled entertainment equipment for the home, such as networked DVD players and even a sofa with built-in speakers."