Cisco to fold Flip video-camera business

Cisco announced that it is ending production of the Flip line of handheld video cameras. Cisco, the announcement reads, will "close down its Flip business and support current FlipShare customers and partners with a transition plan.” But Cisco does not provide a timetable or further information. Cisco will restructure its Linksys home-networking line but is equally vague about the details. The original Flip, released by Pure Digital in 2006 as well as such successors as the Flip Mino and the Flip UltraHD all provided remarkably simple editing and sharing through their built-in applications once they were connected to a Windows computer. Cisco tried to compete with a higher-end model that offered a much larger screen but couldn't compete on price (assuming a buyer was already set to get a smartphone). It never got around to shipping a version that could share video over WiFi, despite many reports that it would. The only real surprise is that Cisco made this move now and didn't try to unload the division first -- bought for $590 million barely two years ago.