Skype And Linksys
Source: andyabramson.blogs.com
It seems Linksys likes to eat away at the Cisco business at every chance they can.
First they bought Sipura, a move which I’ve heard has caused some internal indigestion. I’m also hearing from some of my Enterprise business contatcts that Linksys may have plans on the drawing board to release a PBX like system that will cut into the business of Cisco’s Call Manager to go after the 5 plus office set up.
Not only that, but it has to take a swipe at Vonage, one of the bigger buyers of Linksys VoIP Telephone Adapters. Vonage is in the middle of a roll out with a VAR sold IP PBX product offering aimed at the SOHO and Small Business markets.
While these two Linksys rumors were circulating at VON and since then (aren’t conferences great for getting the low down), it seems their move with Skype is real.
I commend the folks at Linksys for being willing to challenge the corporate mother, Cisco, and will enjoy watching the internal politics at work over the next year. One report I’m also hearing is that Linksys didn’t hit their numbers this year. That may be a driver of what is triggering a reshuffling inside Cisco and at Linksys too. Then again what we may be seeing is the typical acquirer driven approach to learning about the asset they bought, figuring out who and what is worth keeping, and what’s basically deadwood.
File this in the Time Will Tell category, but my sources, like the ones who told me about Yahoo and MSN usually are rather spot on when it comes to this kind of thing.
