Linksys announces enhanced partner program

Mumbai

July 4th, 2007

Linksys has announced the restructuring and intended rollout of the Linksys
Partner Connection (LPC) program in August. The LPC has been designed to add
technology specialization choices for partners who want to benefit in specific
small business solution categories. Additionally, Linksys and Cisco also
announced they will align partner programs and initiatives to drive growth and
increase efficiencies for channel partners in the small and medium business (SMB)
market.

The Linksys Partner Connection (LPC) Program is specifically focused on
channel partners who sell and offer Linksys Business Series and Linksys One
product families. The program improvements will include a tiering structure
(Registered and Business Elite Partner) for specialization in foundation
technologies (routing, switching and wireless), storage, voice solutions and
Linksys One. New benefits for the LPC program were also developed to reward
partners for investing in pre-sales and post-sales resources, technical
expertise and ongoing service capabilities to help drive increased partner
profitability for selling platform solutions and managed services.

"The improved Linksys Partner Connection Program is a two-tiered partner
program that rewards partners for their pre- and post-sales capabilities,
ongoing service capabilities as well as their investment in Linksys technical
capabilities," said Nigel Williams, Linksys VP of the worldwide channels
organization. "Linksys Connected Office portfolio of products and solutions
offer market relevant features allowing partners to address the needs of today's
small business customer."

The goal of the value-based program is to align with Cisco's worldwide
partner program. Together Linksys and Cisco registered channel partners will be
combined into one common community to take advantage of both Cisco and Linksys
unrestricted products. Linksys will also take advantage of Cisco's distribution
capabilities to enhance its global reach and enable distribution partners to
build SMB initiatives across the brands. Finally, Linksys and Cisco will link
the Cisco Certified Partner designations with Linksys Business Elite Partner
status in the coming months.

"By working together to address the diverse small business market we can
provide incremental value and profitability to the channel partners that cater
to this segment," said Keith Goodwin, senior VP, Worldwide Channels at
Cisco. "By building a partner program around the same value-based
philosophy as Cisco, Linksys has laid the foundation for ongoing collaboration
and alignment of our channel program and initiatives.

The LPC program tiers include: Registered Partner - Tier 1; Business Elite
Partner - Tier 2 and Business Elite Specialized Partner

In addition, partners receive access to marketing development funds and the
ability to take Linksys product specializations in Network Attached Storage
(NAS), voice and Linksys One.

The enhanced Linksys LPC program and alignment with Cisco partner program is
expected to roll out in the US and Canada in August 2007 and progressively in
other regions around the world. Existing Linksys Partners will be asked to
re-register into the new Linksys Partner Connection program. There will be a
grace period of six months to re-register for the new program in the US and
Canada. EMEA, LatAm and APAC regions will be rolled out over the next 12 Months.