(2007-03-04) Cisco Buys Tribe

Cisco is buying Social Networking site TribeNet. Founder MarkPincus left Tribe.net in 2005 but repurchased the company from lenders last summer when it was nearly out of money. Today, Tribe.net is primarily used by artists who attend the annual Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert... Cisco is positioning itself for the day when mainstream consumers are spending much of their time taking part in these online communities. With the acquisition of Tribe.net, it is also trying to further its quest to become a consumer-oriented company. In the last few years, it has purchased the wireless router company LinkSys and the set-top-box maker Scientific Atlanta, giving it a significant presence in many American homes. Dan Scheinman, the mergers and acquisition chief who led the LinkSys and Scientific Atlanta purchases, now runs a new division at Cisco called the Media Solutions Group, which has been responsible for the deals for FiveAcross and TribeNet.

I thought maybe they'd be trying to apply it to the Network of Cisco dealers/consultants, like they have to run Knowledge Management systems... But apparently their idea is that Social Networking drives Internet traffic, which increases router sales. That's the dumbest freaking thing I ever heard. Perhaps they should buy Anna Nicole Smith's body...

Actually, they didn't buy the TribeNet site, they [bought](http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/03/06/H Nciscosocial_1.html?source=NLC-WS&cgd=2007-03-07) the technology and other assets.

Emanuele Quintarelli has an interesting summary of a CEO speech. The content actually residing inside screens, will be shown inside everyday objects tomorrow... Cisco acquired code and know-how that can help them to put objects on the network and simplify the technology.

Om Malik thinks they're nuts.

That same story re-hypes Ning, which Stowe Boyd is tired of.

• Marc Andreessen responds to him.