Cisco on Friday announced plans to acquire KiSS Technology of Denmark for $61 million in cash and stock in a move to extend its Linksys franchise into networked entertainment devices.

KiSS develops technology that allows devices such as DVD players and recorders to be placed on home networks, and manufactures several which include the capability to play networked content on demand.

The Irvine, California-based manufacturer of networking products purchased Linksys in 2003, and since then has made one other acquisition for the company, that being Sipura Technology, which makes VoIP phone products, earlier this year.

"As more and more entertainment content is delivered over the Internet and as consumers demand access to digital entertainment inside and outside of their home networks, networked entertainment devices will become an integral part of Consumer Electronics," said Charles Giancarlo, Cisco Chief Technology Officer and Cisco-Linksys president.

KiSS' products will continue to be made available in Europe, where they have been since 2001. However, Cisco said it would eventually make several products based on the company's networking technology available in other world markets.

Cisco says that it expects the acquisition of KiSS to put Linksys further ahead of its competitors in the growing networked entertainment market, and the technology and intellectual property gained by the merger will speed time-to-market for new products and help develop new technologies.

InStat expects that 38 percent of home networks by 2009 will include some kind of networked entertainment device, with revenue increasing from $3.9 billion in 2004 to over $16 billion by the end of the decade.

The merger should complete later this year.