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Pure Digital, makers of the very poplar Flip Mino camera, has been acquired by Cisco.  Cisco isn’t really known for meddling with its purchases too quickly.  Linksys was bought by Cisco in 2003.  It wasn’t until 2007 that Cisco announced plans to retire the “Linksys” brand.  The phase out has been slow and today’s Linksys devices bear the “Linksys by Cisco” label.

Now what will Cisco do with a camera company?  There’s really no need for too much guessing because Cisco already gave an answer: 

“The acquisition of Pure Digital is key to Cisco’s strategy to expand our momentum in the media-enabled home and to capture the consumer market transition to visual networking,” said Ned Hooper, senior vice president of Cisco’s Corporate Development and Consumer Groups. “Pure Digital has revolutionized the way people capture and share video with Flip Video. This acquisition will take Cisco’s consumer business to the next level as the company develops new video capabilities and drives the next generation of entertainment and communication experiences.”

“Visual networking” is an interesting phrase.  Cisco has a vast wealth of networking knowledge.  Adding networking features to Flip devices could be pretty interesting.  Hopefully they didn’t just mean capturing video from a Flip and then uploading that video to a network. 

Cisco is also heavily involved in the world of networks.  Businesses will soon be able to connect a Cisco router to a Cisco server.  The company is also involved in security products.  Perhaps Cisco will also make use of its Flip properties in networked security devices as well. 

Read: [Press Release] via [Cisco Blog]