Belkin is acquiring Cisco‘s home networking unit, the company announced today, including its products, employees, and the popular Linksys brand, which makes smart routers for home Wi-Fi access points.

“Belkin’s ultimate goal is to be the global leader in the connected home and wireless networking space, and this acquisition is an important step to realizing that vision,” said Chet Pipkin, Belkin’s CEO, in a statement.

To ensure it’s an easy transition for customers, Belkin claims it will honor valid warranties for current and future Linksys products.

When the deal closes, Belkin will account for approximately 30 percent of the U.S. retail home and small business networking market. Meanwhile, Cisco is looking to exit the consumer business market altogether, recently shuttering its Flip video camera unit.

Instead, the networking giant intends to expand in business software and professional services. The company has made a spate of acquisitions to realize this vision, and yesterday picked up Intucell for a cool $475 million.

“We are pleased about this strategic relationship with Belkin to build on Linksys’ position of strength,” said  Hilton Romanski, VP Corporate Business Development at Cisco.

Back in December, Bloomberg reported that Cisco hired Barclays to find a buyer for Linksys. The hunt didn’t last long. But the company likely fetched a lower price the $500 million Cisco paid for it in 2003.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Linksys image via Jonathan Zander // Wikimedia Commons.

The device, dubbed the Universal WiFi Range Extender, plugs in directly to any wall socket and works as wireless bridge to extend wireless connectivity. Wisely, Netgear didn’t limit its functionality to the company’s own wireless routers — the Extender will work across any brand of router. It even sports an ethernet port to connect wired devices.

While there are other devices out there that can extend wireless range, Netgear’s Range Extender is by far the simplest solution I’ve seen.

The company also unveiled its powerful N600 wireless dual band gigabit router, which seems built specifically to broadcast large high-definition files. Netgear built-in some features that aren’t found on any other router — it can find the clearest wireless channel in your neighborhood, speed up and smooth out the streaming of HD files, and even share media from storage devices attached to the router.

A Netgear Genie feature lets you easily manage your wireless network. It can diagnose (and sometimes fix) issues with your network, and it offers an easy interface for parental and guest access control.