The shaky-focus charm of YouTube videos may not be immediately impacted, but Cisco is definitely dumping its Flip video camera business as it realigns itself, according to the San Jose-company's release.
The handheld Flip was part of a $590 million purchase of Pure Digital in 2009. The entire re-org will leave 550 employees looking elsewhere for opportunities.
[Archive video: After Flip had sold to Cisco, Simon Fleming-Wood told "Press:Here" that Cisco brough scale and resources to the operation to help it grow. Umm....]
As Cisco repositions itself, it's exiting its consumer-focused businesses, focusing more on routing, switching, architectures and video -- more hard-tech businesses.
"We are making key, targeted moves as we align operations in support of our network-centric platform strategy," John Chambers, Cisco chairman and CEO, said in the release.
Chambers, as recently as a week ago, addressed the company's drift and loss of credibility with investors and the public: "Many say that in the face of this expansion, Cisco needs more discipline. I agree."
That was then and this is now: "As we move forward, our consumer efforts will focus on how we help our enterprise and service provider customers optimize and expand their offerings for consumers, and help ensure the network's ability to deliver on those offerings."
Business
The company will continue to support Flip through a "transition period," but, ultimately, Flip is dead
