Cisco Systems announced Wednesday its intent to purchase privately held Pure Networks, a developer of home networking-management software and tools, for about $120 million.
The networking giant positioned the acquisition as giving it management software for “home networking 2.0,” in which the multimedia-enabled home will be comprised of a multitude of disparate network devices, applications and services that are connected to one another.
Pure Networks already provides Cisco the software and tools used to create the Linksys Easy Link Advisor (LELA), which is designed to let consumers easily set up, organize, manage, secure and use a home network.
The acquisition is expected to be completed in Cisco's first quarter of fiscal year 2009, which ends in late Octorber. After the deal closes, Pure Networks employees will remain in Seattle and be combined into Cisco’s Linksys division, under senior vice president and general manager Mike Pocock.
