Pure Digital

Cisco’s Flirtation With Consumers Is Over, as Belkin Buys Linksys Unit

Arik Hesseldahl in News on January 24, 2013 at 2:38 pm PT

Well, that’s enough of that!

Jonathan Kaplan Still Doesn’t Know Exactly Why Cisco Killed the Flip (Video)

Arik Hesseldahl in D9 on June 1, 2011 at 10:17 am PT

Jonathan Kaplan still doesn’t know exactly why Cisco Systems opted to shut down its Flip Digital video camera unit rather than selling it. But he has a pretty good guess.

Fade to Black…This Is How It Ends for the Flip Digital Video Camera?

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on April 12, 2011 at 4:38 pm PT

Cisco Systems always seemed a strange owner for Pure Digital, the company that made the Flip video camera. The biggest question left over from Cisco’s announcement that it will shut the Flip business down is this: Why didn’t Cisco try to sell it to someone else?

Video: After Cisco Sacrifices His Baby to the Gods of Wall Street, Flip Founder Jon Kaplan Speaks!

Kara Swisher in News on April 12, 2011 at 1:08 pm PT

Right after BoomTown heard the sad news this morning that Cisco was jettisoning its Flip digital video camera division–part of a transparent effort to assure Wall Street that it was no longer serious about its wacky foray into the consumer market–I lobbed in a call to its founder Jonathan Kaplan to get him on video talking about the loss. The Flip, of course, has been my go-to tool to harass and annoy Silicon Valley moguls, since it appeared on the scene many years ago. The technique for the simple device was to essentially stick it up someone’s nose until they cried “Uncle!” and told me what I wanted to know.

Cisco Kills the Flip Video Camera Business

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on April 12, 2011 at 6:39 am PT

Cisco is shaking up its consumer business. First on the list of things to go? The Flip video camera.

Chambers Promises Changes at Cisco, But the Task Ahead Is a Big One

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on April 6, 2011 at 7:48 am PT

Cisco CEO John Chambers promises changes, but problems at the networking giant run deep.

Voices

Newest Video Bet By Disney's Steamboat Ventures Is Elemental

Ty McMahan, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on July 27, 2010 at 12:38 pm PT

Steamboat Ventures Managing Director Scott Hilleboe admits that investing in video technologies is a bit frenzied these days. “The short-term horizon, it’s like the wild, wild west,” Hilleboe said. “The growth of online video is causing a land grab.”

Aliph in Collaboration Deal With Cisco–Jawbones in the Workplace?

Kara Swisher in News on April 28, 2010 at 8:40 am PT

Today at a partner event, Cisco will unveil a wide-ranging collaboration with Aliph–a San Francisco start-up that is famous for its noise-cancelling Jawbone Bluetooth mobile headset–to deploy its software and device in its IP phones in the enterprise. It is a big win for Aliph, since the networking giant is a dominant player in the arena to provide telephony solutions to businesses, part of its Voice and Unified Communications division. The idea, said sources, is to use the Jawbone device and the software that manages it to allow workers to move around an office and have the call move with them, echoing increasingly mobile consumer behavior.

Index Invests $25 Million in Sonos (Plus a Video Interview With VC Mike Volpi)

Kara Swisher in News on March 12, 2010 at 9:00 am PT

Earlier this week, BoomTown had lunch with Michelangelo “Mike” Volpi, the high-profile tech exec who turned into a VC recently at Index Ventures. We also did a video interview about his new life as a an investor, based in London, although Volpi did manage to leave out the big news. That would be a just-inked $25 million investment by Index in wireless home music system maker Sonos, as well as a new board seat there for Volpi.