Cisco Buys a Product-Design Firm, Takes Aim at Consumer Electronics

The networking giant has bought itself a design firm, to shore up its in-house product-development chops.

Cisco--who's best-known for making backbone infrastructure for the internet--is getting serious about consumer electronics. And today, they announced another big step in that direction, the acquisition of Moto, a somewhat obscure design firm.

Moto, it should be noted, isn't one of those big hot-shot firms like IDEO or Frog or Smart. But what they do seem to possess is an intimate...