Foxconn buys Belkin for $866M

by Rifu on 3/27/2018, 1:34:20 AM with 129 comments

  • by luhn on 3/27/2018, 1:55:22 AM

    > You probably know Belkin for its various lines of accessories, peripherals, and assorted consumer electronics; Linksys, surely the most recognizable router brand, is a subsidiary.

    Apparently Cisco sold Linksys to Belkin in 2013. That's news to me.

  • by walrus01 on 3/27/2018, 2:27:43 AM

    The only good Belkin product I have ever seen is their 12 outlet power strip. As a network engineer everything they make with an Ethernet/wifi interface is complete shit. But this is not really news, D-Link, Netgear, many of their competitors are also junk.

  • by siruncledrew on 3/27/2018, 1:57:15 AM

    Damn, I didn't know Foxconn was the 4th larges IT company with 726k employees: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_informatio...

  • by spiderPig on 3/27/2018, 1:57:40 AM

    It is a little disconcerting that Foxconn (subject to deep Chinese government overreach) will now own Linksys

  • by kbutler on 3/27/2018, 3:51:42 AM

    Just today I contacted Belkin live support for a usb-c gigabit Ethernet adapter that stopped working 1 month in. They are shipping me a replacement.

    My previous experience was with a router that would occasionally fail under load (e.g., torrents), requiring a restart. They sent a replacement for that, too, but I never found a use for an unreliable router.

  • by bhouston on 3/27/2018, 1:50:07 AM

    Neat. Belkin was pretty crap about 7 years or so ago but they raised their game I find in the last couple years. They are pretty solid with decent prices now.

    I think there is a pretty good market for smart home accessories, various wifi enabled devices like powerstrips, lights, cameras, locks, alarm systems, etc. With Belkin's Walmart distribution network and their low costs, I think it may be something they could target well.

  • by peebtkxs on 3/27/2018, 1:09:31 PM

    Was it Foxconn that was blocked from acquiring an American company earlier this month? Is this acquisition a order of magnitude smaller?

    Is it strange that this wasn’t blocked as well?

  • by bsimpson on 3/27/2018, 5:18:23 AM

    Duplicate of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16684316

  • by JohnnyConatus on 3/27/2018, 5:27:00 AM

    According to sources, Foxconn really didn't want to buy Belkin but that's all they had at the store.

  • by ausjke on 3/27/2018, 1:59:23 AM

    foxconn makes routers for all the vendors I think, e.g. dlink.netgear,belkin...now Belkin might push its competitors away from Foxconn's assembly lines

  • by ajinkyax on 3/27/2018, 8:18:11 AM

    Just confirmed with my relative who works ta Belkin, Dubai. They just finished call with them.. and news is already leaked.

  • by thrownaway954 on 3/27/2018, 4:19:44 PM

    i honestly would think that Belkin would be worth something in the billions. they are the qtip of computer cables.

  • by shmerl on 3/27/2018, 3:43:36 AM

    Hm. I wonder what will happen to Linksys supporting open source WiFi drivers now for their WRT/ACS routers.

  • by reiichiroh on 3/27/2018, 3:47:02 PM

    Does Belkin own Kensington and former joystick brand Gravis too?

  • by a-fried-egg on 3/27/2018, 4:21:39 AM

    Good thing for Netgear

  • by erikb on 3/27/2018, 9:00:39 AM

    > best known for manufacturing practically everything in the world

    Huh? I thought they manufacture iPhone chips and that's it. Now they buy peripherals because iphone itself won't make enough profit growth anymore to give top management the multi-million-dollar bonuses they are used to.