7/30/2008 -- Cisco Systems Inc. was on the acquisition prowl once again last week, snapping up privately-held Pure Networks for $120 million.

Pure Networks is a Seattle-based provider of products that purport to make home networking an easier -- or more manageable -- affair.

It's an existing Cisco partner, primarily on the Linksys side.

The impetus, according to Cisco, is the ongoing transformation from what it calls Home Networking 1.0 -- where home networks usually consist of one or more PCs connected via a router to broadband Internet -- to (you guessed it) Home Networking 2.0: a multimedia-centric idyll in which PCs and non-traditional devices are all connected (to the Internet and to one another) via home networks.

If the name Pure Networks sounds familiar to you, there's a reason for that: It currently provides the infrastructure and tools for the Linksys Easy Link Advisor (LELA), software that Cisco's Linksys subsidiary packages with its products to help customers set up, manage and secure their home networks.

One immediate purpose of the acquisition, according to Cisco, is to recast LELA as a platform for multimedia-enabled applications, tools and capabilities. There's a management hook, too: Cisco expects to let service providers remotely manage Home Networking 2.0 components (via the Pure technology).

"With the rapid proliferation of networking technology and new consumer electronics devices, the ability to quickly and easily connect to a range of devices, content and services throughout the home is becoming paramount to achieving a satisfying consumer experience," said Ned Hooper, senior vice president for Cisco's Corporate Development and Consumer Group, in a statement. "Pure Networks' network-management innovations will provide Cisco and Linksys with a key underpinning to take home networking to the next level of ease of use."

Once the acquisition closes -- which should occur during Q1 of Cisco's 2009 fiscal year -- Pure's technologies will be integrated into Linksys, although its employees will remain in Seattle, according to Cisco. --Stephen Swoyer