Fountain Valley’s D-Link Systems Inc., part of Taiwan’s D-Link Corp., has quietly gotten into online advertising with an acquisition.
The move is a shift for the seller of networking gear for consumers and small businesses.
“D-Link was primarily known as a consumer company,” said Nick Tidd, president of D-Link North America. “It was incumbent upon us to expand our reach into other markets.”
D-Link sells routers, gateways, switches, cable modems and other networking devices for home and small-business users. The products are made in Asia and marketed by the Fountain Valley operation.
The company is a rival of networking kingpin Cisco Systems Inc., whose Irvine-based Linksys is the top seller of networking gear for consumers and small businesses.
Earlier this year, D-Link acquired Wishfi Inc., a Fountain Valley-based startup that makes software that shifts a Web page downward to make room for advertising at the top of the screen.
D-Link didn’t announce the deal or give financial details.
The idea behind the buy is that the service will appeal to businesses looking to do targeted advertising via their own wireless networks. It’s especially geared toward operators of coffeehouses, restaurants, hotels and others.
Wishfi’s software allows users to tailor information to those using their networks. If a customer logs on to a free wireless network at a coffeehouse, the owner can advertise products, specials or other promotions.
If the customer clicks on the ad, the coffeehouse pays its Internet provider a fee on top of a subscription cost.
“The Wishfi deal gave us the beginning of aggregating content,” Tidd said. “It’s an incentive for D-Link’s customers and another service we can offer to them.”
The service is designed to boost sales of D-Link gear through telecommunications companies and cable operators that’ll pitch the ad service to businesses along with Internet connections.
The service also allows for D-Link and businesses to share revenue from ads with Internet service providers.
D-Link’s Taiwanese parent sees about $1 billion in yearly sales. It doesn’t break out sales for its U.S. operations.
The Fountain Valley operation, which employs about 225 people, has been trying to break out of a mold of being just a maker of inexpensive networking gadgets.
“We have one of the largest product portfolios in the industry, but everyone has us pigeon-holed as the $99 router company,” Tidd said. “We have been trying to bust out of that.”
Tidd, a veteran of Marlborough, Mass.-based 3Com Corp. who came on board in 2009, has headed up a restructuring at D-Link.
Starting about a year ago, the company has sought to cut costs and combined its North and South America operations.
“We were acting as two distinct companies before and had a fair bit of duplicate resources,” he said. “We wanted to be ready when the economy started to turn.”
Earlier this year, the company promoted Tidd to president of D-Link North America from vice president of marketing for North America and vice president of sales for Pan-America operations.
The executive shift brought the departure of Steven Joe, former U.S. president and chief executive who spent more than 20 years at the company. Joe later landed a vice president post at Irvine TV maker Vizio Inc.
Keith Karlsen, former executive vice president, also left during the reorganization.
“Whenever you have leaders who have been with you for that length of time, organizations need people to step in and look at things from a different perspective and from a different set of experiences,” Tidd said.
The company since has been hiring executives at a rapid clip, mostly in sales, operations and marketing.
It’s added half a dozen sales executives and revamped its reseller channel programs, overhauled its internal technology setups and has begun to implement new warranties, according to Tidd.
