Logitech acquiring Slim Devices

There's nothing we love more around here than a bit of surprising news, and next to HP's recent purchase of VoodooPC, Logitech's just-announced acquisition of Slim Devices caught us off guard like nothing has in awhile. According to Slim CEO Sean Adams, his company -- which makes such streaming audio products as the Squeezebox and Transporter -- will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Logitech -- maker of nearly every kind peripheral under the sun -- with the entire Slim team having already accepted employment offers from their new overlord. The newly-swallowed Slim will remain in its Mountain View offices and retain its executive structure for the "foreseeable future," while gaining the marketing power, retail partnerships, and economy of scale benefits enjoyed by larger corporations. As you're probably aware, Logitech has already dipped its toe into the streaming audio pool with such products as the Wireless DJ Music System, so snatching up Slim will give it a better foothold in this market along with the invaluable expertise offered by Slim's employees. For the consumer, this partnership will probably result in lower prices as well as attractive bundles featuring Slim gear and Logitech speakers / remotes, although you can never really predict how an acquisition will affect a company's innovation and product quality. Still, quite the interesting bit of news, and we're excited to see what kind of swag the Slim team will produce now that they have more muscle and capital behind them.

[tekdroid @ Oct 18th 2006 7:43PM]

Well, let's just hope that FLAC continues to be supported in the Slim Devices products. If anything, I find Logitech's products overpriced and really not up-to-par to cheaper asian no-namers. So we'll see where they take this.

[Mike Prevette @ Oct 18th 2006 7:55PM]

This can't be good. Bu-bye opensource.

[Dan Sully @ Oct 18th 2006 8:04PM]

Open Source is here to stay. We'll be continuing with the GPLed SlimServer & community.

Please see Sean (the CEO) commenting on the subject:

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28821

- dan | at| slimdevices.com, SlimServer Lead

[Sean Adams @ Oct 18th 2006 8:05PM]

Hi everyone,

Please see this thread on Slim Devices' forums for comments from both parties:

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28821

thanks,
Sean Adams

[Ralph @ Oct 18th 2006 8:06PM]

As the person who submitted this tip (hope I was the first!) and the owner of four Squeezebox 3's and one Squeezebox 2, this can only be a good thing.

Slim Device's open source model has always seemed like: Let's throw this crappy bug-filled software out there and let our users act as our QA department, filling out bug reports and bitching like hell in the support forums.

This is totally unacceptable for any product that hopes to have volume sales. Unless Logitech/Slim Devices can get their QA straightened out, Slim Devices will always be a niche product for those who enjoy installing Daily Builds on a daily basis.

As I've said before, if your hardware device is SLIM (not a bad model per se), then your software had better be ROCK SOLID.

[richard @ Oct 18th 2006 8:09PM]

Well. Here's to hoping they don't change much. Of all the gadgits I have - and that's a few - my Sqeezebox is - by far the best.

[hmurchison @ Oct 18th 2006 8:12PM]

Considering Logitech has done well with the Harmony acquisition I'm pleased about this after my initial shock. More financial and engineering support should fix a lot of the issues that people have with the software. I'm drooling at the idea of what Logitech can provide with the Transporter and Harmony remotes. Make some cool stuff guys

[Ian Jardine @ Oct 18th 2006 8:26PM]

Sean,
Well done to you and your people.
As a SB owner and avid fan I hope that this brings marketing muscle, lower pr.ices (of course) and more functionality (video streaming) ASAP.

[charlie @ Oct 18th 2006 8:33PM]

I'm a fan of logitech. I have their Z-2300 2.1 speaker system, its BY FAR the best computer stereo speaker set in my dorm (2 other people have them), and for less than $100. In comparison, a lot of girls who bought computers at an Apple Store got suckered into buying funky looking, much more expensive, much worse sounding speakers.

My set was about a year old before I got to college, and all the sudden it started making popping noises every once in a while. I called up Logitech and after a couple minutes on the phone they were sending out a brand new set no questions asked, without me having to return my existing set or even fill out some sort of RMA form. The new set works flawlessly, and I know that I'll be a repeat customer to a company that treats its customers so well.

I just hope they do a good job bringing Slim Devices' high quality offerings to a more mainstream audience.

[Revrant2394 @ Oct 18th 2006 8:55PM]

I do Hope you're referring to a select few products, because Logitech has, in my experience, the Hands Down Best Warranties and customer support out there for a PC/Etc Hardware company.

My Microsoft keyboard, love her as I do, One year warranty, limited tech support, not to mention whenever I called, Indian, thankfully understandable, but still.

Now if you mean the quality of the devices themselves, well that's a spectrum, obviously the little Notebook mouse isn't going to be quite as high quality as my MX1000 here.

Moving on, I see nothing grand in this acquisition for either company, we'll have to see if something comes of it.

[motech @ Oct 18th 2006 10:18PM]

i dont know if its harmonys fault or logitechs, but
harmony remotes (which is owned by logitech)
has horrible horrible quality control and software development.

lets hope this doesnt happen to squeeze (though truthfully i dont see squeeze lasting very long)

[Brad @ Oct 19th 2006 12:29AM]

I actually think things worked well for the Harmony acquisition: Logitech has been improving the one sore spot for Harmony: their industrial design (ok, the software is clunky, but you use it at most once a year and it works).

I'd love it if this meant better server software � I ended up selling my Squeezebox because the server software choked on my not-terribly-large iTunes library � but that doesn't strike me as Logitech's area of expertise.

Most likely, it will help Slim Devices broaden their market. Although they listen to their customers' requests like no other company I know (the Transporter is just one long digital audio geek wishlist), it seems to come at the cost of catering to potential customers. I still wouldn't recommend a Squeezebox to my parents, for example.

Anyway, congratulations to the folks at Slim Devices. They make a (mostly) fantastic product, and deserve their success.

[Mark O'Sullivan @ Oct 19th 2006 1:00AM]

I can only hope that they get rid of that awful slim server software and give us a proper, bug free way of using our squeezeboxes. That software is the main reason my squeezebox serves solely as a dust collector.

[BoB @ Oct 19th 2006 2:26AM]

I hope this acquisition does two things:
1.) improves slimdevices buggy software releases
2.) improves their one-to-one technical support (their tech team just gave up on me when my problems couldn't be fixed after a month!)

[LPD @ Oct 19th 2006 12:52PM]

I love my SqueezeBoxes and the company but I agree with the others when they say the software has problems and is buggy. I can't recommend it to most people I know because they are not technical enough. Hopefully with larger distribution will be the funds and resources to improve the software. The hardware is really good. SlimDevices is a great company to deal with, I wish them all the best, and will continue to buy products from them as long as LogiTech doesn't destroy the company culture.

[Nathan @ Oct 19th 2006 2:03PM]

I'll echo the above comments about the poor server software. What they need to do is make the server software a standalone application as opposed to a browser interface.

I would use my Squeezebox 3 a whole lot more if it didn't take so long to setup a playlist. The browser interface may work well for a small static library, but for a dynamic library of 40000+ files it is extremely tedius and slow.

[Rodney L. @ Oct 19th 2006 10:43PM]

It was all an attempt to get to Pandora....
or not. I guess it was bound to happen though. Slim devices seem to have nice stuff.

[NC @ Oct 21st 2006 4:16PM]

Logitech makes good products. I have a G7 cordless laser mouse, and one night my wife got a little upset at me, and slammed it on the ground. The battery popped out but I stuck it back in, and everything still worked perfectly so back to WoW I went.

[UKBassman @ Jan 8th 2007 10:29PM]

I bought a Squeezebox shortly after the Logitech buyout. It's a risk for me more ways than one. I'm a big Open source fan and most of my music is Flac and ogg. For some strange reason, big firms don't want to take any legal risks that they perceive can come with open source. I think think that all it will take is a nasty gram from the RIAA and poof! Only support for MP3 of some other DRM crippled format will be left. I'm also Linux only, Logitech hasn't shown much love for Linux in their other products. I could easily see them putting the nix on Linux on just a corporate whim. Keeping fingers crossed.
Sean