I nearly missed this news tidbit today but Cisco has apparently agreed to acquire KiSS Technologies for a sum total of $61 million dollars in stock and cash. For those of you who do not know what KiSS does – they specialize in manufacturing networked entertainment devices such as DVD players and recorders. They were one of the first companies to support DivX video at the hardware level allowing people the ability to stream videos from the network to the player. The purchase is actually being done by the Linksys division of Cisco and is expected to close in Q1 of the fiscal 2006 calendar. It’s an interesting purchase for Cisco because it shows the company is branching beyond just networking equipment and into areas where networking will play a role in such as home entertainment. Not only does Cisco want to rule the building blocks of networking, but it wants to be a force in the application of these building blocks. Check out eHomeUpgrade for more info.

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