Switzerland-based Logitech, maker of personal computer peripherals, is entering the software market by acquiring internet video communications services provider SightSpeed for $30 million in cash. The deal is expected to close in early November.
The acquisition of the 25-person company, born out of a Cornell University lab, is a result of Logitech looking to complement their hardware solutions with solid video communication technology in combination with a R&D knowledge buy.
SightSpeed’s services, which are SIP-based and standards-compliant, comes with a free version and a premium version called SightSpeed Plus (for consumers) which costs $9.95 per month or $99.95 per year. The professional version costs $19.95 a month/$240 per person a year, and runs on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.
This marks a third successful hand-off for SightSpeed CEO Peter Csathy, a digital media veteran who was previously involved with Musicmatch (acquired by Yahoo in 2004) and eNow/Relegence (acquired by AOL in 2006).
SightSpeed raised $1+ million from Roda Group of Berkeley and BR Ventures back in February 2003 and had reportedly been in talks with venture capitalists to raise a additional Series B round last summer. The privately-held company struck a major deal in June 2008 when it announced it would be integrating a video chat application into Dell laptops.
Congrats to Peter.. he must be rolling in it by now!
Great for Logitech to expend their views. One thing is for sure: they don’t lack the user base.
I guess a clever move…. compare that to the price of Skype
Logitech is great! {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/g6tmMZV3HW_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”Logitech is great! ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/lQbqt7Cb73″}}}
logitech never disappoints. great products. if they are smart they will get into search marketing and strategically integrate this product into there own location engine.
StrategyLocator.com-know where your going.
What do voice and video chat have to do with “location engines”? There is zero search technology in anything SightSpeed offers.
Not everything is related to URLs or geographical locations.
just sayin…
why don’t you do something with all that money you’re wasting on your bullshit+locator.com domain…
Peter is a first-rate guy and a fantastic CEO, as evidenced by his record. Congratulations to him and his team. And congratulations to Logitech for acquiring a pretty great piece of web technology.