There's a good chance you've owned a
Logitech webcam at some point in your life, and if all goes according to plan your company's executives might soon be buying them, too. Logitech has announced intent to acquire
LifeSize Communications, makers of high-end, high-def video-conferencing systems that primarily find themselves installed at one end of long, richly stained tables, flanked by tall leather chairs and positioned such that the CEO can gesture vaguely toward the camera and proudly say how expensive it was without actually knowing how to use it. If approved, the $405 million deal will put Logitech in competition with industry stalwarts like
Polycom and
Cisco, creating a no-holds-barred rumble for boardroom domination that will leave no golden parachute untouched.
posted Nov 11th 2009 7:47AM
Someone's in love.....EY! get your USB cable out of her video phone port!
s'rong with you!
And with USB 3.0 comming we will be able to have HiDef chats or distance learning or whatever suites u :)
I was skeptical when Logitech bought up the tiny Slim Devices company that they would run it into the ground but the Squeezebox product is thriving now.
As an integrator of Polycom HD conferencing suites I welcome the competition. Polycom and Tandberg have owned the VCON arena for years and LifeSize was one of the major driving forces behind Polycom's HD initiative in the first place. Frankly speaking, if it weren't for Cisco's incessant advertising and marketing (like on 30 Rock!) many of our clients wouldn't even know HD VCON existed. With a behemoth like Logitech signing the checks now there's a solid fourth player in the market.
So all of this is a long-winded way of saying "Yay, competition!" I just hope that they maintain a solid RS-232 and IP control protocol!
Man, this space is turning into a mad battlefront now.
AAAAHAHAHAHA... wow, at first glance, thought that said "bedroom near you"... though this whole concept COULD have new applications in a bedroom setting. Sorry, the misread got me thinking in the wrong direction.
Last week they announced they were in the red and the company was almost dead, so what's the deal there?
Logitech also bought SightSpeed for video conferencing solution a few months ago. They are either planning to corner the video conf mkt OR they realized they missed the mark with their purhchase of Sightspeed (should have been obvious since nobody was using SightSpeed anyway)
I'm a bit confused why this article doesn't mention Tandberg. They are market leaders in the video industry, Cisco and Polycom get a mention why not Tandberg? Last month Cisco announced their intention to purchase Tandberg for $3 billion, their biggest European aquisition ever, but Engadget doesn't report this either?
great! I've only started dabbling with the VC industry over the last year or so, but what an overpriced, closed and elitist market it's turned out to be. Logitech/LifeSize & Radvision could turn this upsidedown (once Radvision get a little more realistic on pricing too)