Foxconn buys Belkin, Linksys, and Wemo
The Taiwanese company known best for manufacturing iPhones, Foxconn, will soon be the company behind some of the best known routers and other computer accessories. A subsidiary of Foxconn, Foxconn Interconnect Technology, announced today that it would acquire Belkin, which also owns the brands Linksys and Wemo.
Belkin, based in California, has been around for 35 years and is known today for creating an array of computer and phone accessories, including wireless chargers, laptop docks, and phone cases. Belkin purchased Linksys, which is well known for its home routers, in 2013. And it’s been running a smart home system called Wemo for more than five years now.
That’s a major shift for Foxconn, taking it from a behind-the-scenes manufacturing partner to the owner of three major consumer brands.
Now this is some grade A bullshit. Knowing full and well that China's espionage capabilities are amongst some of the best in the world, they just got themselves a new attack vector.
Jesus, I'm behind the times. I thought Linksys was still owned by Cisco.
Woah, this is a massive aquisition that is definitely going to be used to invade people's privacy around the world.
Great. Awesome.
We really need to come up with a new internet protocol that encrypts everything peer-to-peer and doesn't suck horrendously/isn't slow as heck.
Security aside, Foxconn is an absolutely enormous corporation that is well worth reading up on if you aren't aware of them. They've got highly questionable human rights and environmental track records. I'm not keen on them consolidating with other large tech companies.
Encrypt traffic? How is the NSA supposed to invade your privacy then?
Wonder when every business is merged into one giant mega-corporation because governments seem reluctant to even discuss the idea of breaking up monopolies.
Then we can all hail to our dystopian corporate overlords.
Lest we remember the fucking nets the put around windows of their manufacturing plant dorms to prevent suicides...
Also time to stick with pure cisco routers (maybe even asus?) until OpenWRT nuirs everything on the new routers.
Noo I actually liked some of Belkin's products.
What's the brand to get these days? My Linksys router seems like hot garbage, and its also exposing its management interface to the web and I can't turn it off
Antitrust? Anyone? These guys are huge already, this monopoly needs to be broken up
China. Not likely.
Well, Belkin is U.S. based right? Maybe a certain regulatory body can step in and tell Foxconn to eat shit and die before they get their hands on them.
In this administration? Antitrust hasn't been in style for decades now.
those laws (that aren't followed lets be honest) don't really apply to china
Trump stopped a previous Chinese merger, why didn't he stop this one? :thinking:
Pretty much any router with decent hardware and third party firmware (e.g. DD-WRT, Lede, etc) is fine. My Archer C7 with Lede is pretty darn good. I see everyone raving about Ubiquiti routers though.
The thing you have to remember about a Ubiquiti system is that they're access points. You still need to buy a separate router. They're also only the most effective if you set them up as proper APs
Do you guys realize we only call it Chinese Taipei to appease China and that Taiwan is actually an independent country?
awh man I liked Linksys.
The fact that neither party seems to care a whole lot about breaking up monopolies sucks. Politicians like Theodore Roosevelt ended the Gilded Age, we need another antitrust president.
In China you don't get big without the government's blessings.
Foxconn will pay $866 million in cash to acquire Belkin. The Financial Times notes that the purchase should be subject to approval from the US Committee on Foreign Investment, meaning it isn’t a done deal just yet. Given that there have been other high profile foreign acquisitions shut down under the Trump administration, one shouldn’t consider this purchase safe — especially since it involves networking equipment. That said, Foxconn has pledged to build a $10 billion factory in Wisconsin, which could help it stay on the administration’s good side.
Foxconn buys Belkin, Linksys, and Wemo
At least we get these sweet hover chairs and all the food we can drink!
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