the surname see belkin surname . for the cycling team see belkin pro cycling team . belkin international inc. type private industry consumer electronics founded april 18 1983 headquarters playa vista los angeles california usa key people chet pipkin chairman founder ceo number of employees 1000 1 website www.belkin.com belkin headquarters in los angeles belkin international inc. is an american manufacturer of consumer electronics that specializes in connectivity devices . headquartered in playa vista los angeles california 2 it sells various consumer and commercial product lines including routers ipod and iphone accessories mobile computing accessories surge protectors network switches hubs usb and computer network cables kvm switches racks and enclosures and other peripherals . contents 1 history 2 linksys acquisition 3 awards 4 sponsorship and community work 5 criticism 6 references 7 external links history edit belkin was founded in april 18 1983 in hawthorne california by chet pipkin . it has twice made inc. magazine s list of 500 fastest growing privately held companies in the united states . it has major offices across the globe including in the united kingdom the netherlands hong kong and australia . 3 linksys acquisition edit according to a pcworld news article 4 belkin officially completed the acquisition of linksys on march 15 2013 . belkin will maintain both its own brand and the linksys brand into the future according to mathieu whelan a linksys marketing manager who now works for belkin . awards edit belkin was in the inner city top 100 list for six consecutive years and the los angeles business journal s fastest growing private companies list for five . 5 belkin was awarded ilounge s accessory maker of the year award for 2007 and its tunefm was awarded ilounge s fm transmitter of the year award . 6 belkin s tunebasefm was awarded ilounge s car accessory of the year award for 2008 . 7 ces innovations awards 2009 best of in multi room audio video category flywire 8 2008 best of in portable media accessories category tunestudio 9 2006 best of in video category nostromo n52 10 idsa design awards ranking belkin ranked in top list of corporations 11 2002 idea businessweek award gold belkin omniview soho series kvm 12 2009 idea award bronze belkin powerline av 13 multiple if design awards ; in 2009 belkin placed in the top 50 of all company rankings for the number of if awards won . 14 2008 tunestudio and sportcommand 15 2007 clamp on surge protector compact surge protector conceal surge protector flip kvm 16 2006 tunebase and tunebasefm mediapilot 17 2005 usb 7 port hub pureav home theater power consoles pureav home theater power conditioner 18 2003 usb media reader writer 19 2005 business 2.0 bottom line design awards belkin pureav power console 20 sponsorship and community work edit between may 2013 and the end of the 2014 season belkin sponsored a dutch professional cycling team belkin pro cycling team . belkin stepped in after the team formerly known as rabobank lost their headline sponsor . belkin is involved in the local compton community through the asap advanced surveillance and protection plan program with the lasd la county sheriff s department and the everybody wins reading program . belkin supports susan g. komen for the cure to fight breast cancer through its pink ribbon ipod cases that have helped raise 350 000 for the organization . 21 in 2007 belkin made a holiday donation to the one laptop per child olpc initiative . 22 criticism edit in 2003 belkin released a home use wireless router which would occasionally replace users http requests with an advertisement for belkin s filtering software . belkin received some intense criticism for this from technically literate customers and others who described it as a man in the middle attack or a form of session hijacking . belkin initially treated this as a public relations problem rather than an inappropriate action on their part but later relented and issued a firmware update deleting this functionality from the product . 23 24 25 26 27 in early 2009 a belkin online sales representative was discovered paying amazon.com newegg and buy.com users to manipulate reviews of a notoriously buggy belkin router . belkin s president mark reynoso responded to criticism saying that the company does not engage in unethical practices noting however that one of our employees may have been responsible . 28 29 30 on january 19 2009 gizmodo.com published a letter from an anonymous belkin worker where the employee claims that for years all workers were pressed upon to do whatever is needed to get good product reviews and good press which included sending blog writers a device with custom firmware that hides known bugs faking hardware logo certifications as well as writing poor reviews of competitors products . 31 32 33 references edit wikimedia commons has media related to belkin . about belkin . retrieved 27 april 2011 . contact us . belkin . retrieved on july 9 2010 . belkin about us . linksys brand name survives as belkin takes over from cisco belkin . retrieved 2012 06 19 . ipod buyers guide . retrieved 2012 06 19 . 2008 ipod iphone buyers guide . retrieved 2012 06 19 . ces . 2009 innovations honorees . retrieved 2012 06 19 . ces . 2008 innovations honorees . retrieved 2012 06 19 . ces . 2006 innovations honorees . retrieved 2012 06 19 . 5 years of idea winners . retrieved 2012 06 19 . idea businessweek awards complete list of winners . retrieved 2012 06 19 . idea award . retrieved 2012 06 19 . if rankings 2009 . retrieved 2012 06 19 . if design awards 2008 . retrieved 2012 06 19 . if design awards 2007 . retrieved 2012 06 19 . if design awards 2006 . retrieved 2012 06 19 . if design awards 2005 . retrieved 2012 06 19 . if design awards 2003 . retrieved 2012 06 19 . bottom line design awards 2005 . retrieved 2012 06 19 . belkin accessorizes for a good cause . popgadget . retrieved 2009 09 30 . belkin gifts olpc in my name thanks . archived from the original on 23 january 2008 . retrieved 2008 01 19 . help my belkin router is spamming me . the register . 7 november 2003 . archived from the original on 28 july 2005 . retrieved 2005 08 02 . belkin routers route users to censorware ad . slashdot . retrieved 2005 08 02 . castlecops web hijack riles belkin router users . 080205 castlecops.com web hijack riles belkin router users . cnet news.com . november 10 2003 . web hijacking by router a new method of advertisement by belkin . 080205 merit.edu belkin amazon rep paying for fake online reviews . slashdot . 090117 slashdot.org exclusive belkin s development rep is hiring people to write fake positive amazon reviews . 090117 thedailybackground.com http www.crunchgear.com 2009 01 18 belkin replies to mechanical turk shilling crunchgear belkin replies to mechanical turk shilling . retrieved on 18 jan 2009 . chen jason 19 june 2009 . belkin employee sheds light on belkin s supposedly dirty practices . retrieved 13 april 2011 . berndtson chad 20 january 2009 . for belkin are fake reviews for real . crn magazine . retrieved 13 april 2011 . weintraub seth 19 january 2009 . belkin s response to the pay for good review scandal is bad news . computerworld . retrieved 13 april 2011 . external links edit greater los angeles portal companies portal computing portal belkin us belkin uk belkin anz retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title belkin & oldid 735771915 categories american brandsnetworking companies of the united statescompanies based in los angeles county californiacompanies established in 19831983 establishments in californiahidden categories commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction 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