Logitech's recent line of gaming products features mice, keyboards, and even a few racing wheels. However, it appears like it will be adding some new items to its lineup soon. The company struck a deal with Mad Catz to purchase the Saitek brand and products for $13 million.
What Saitek brings to the table
Saitek's present lineup features flight and space simulator controllers like the most recent X-56 Rhino hands-on-throttle-and-stick (HOTAS) peripheral and also a wheel intended for Farming Simulator. The acquisition of Saitek to the Logitech G brand bodes well, as it would be able to incorporate more simulation-based items to the company's products. Right now, Logitech's sim-based inventory includes the Extreme 3D joystick, and the G920 racing wheels.
About Mad Catz
Mad Catz's fortunes started to turn for the worse prior this year. A day before its quarterly budgetary call in February, Darren Richardson, Thomas Brown, and Whitney Peterson resigned from their positions as CEO, chairperson, and senior VP of business affairs, respectively. The next day's earnings evaulation revealed that the altering of the executive level was part of a rebuilding plan to cut 37% of the company's total workforce keeping in order to focus more on "lowering operating costs, increasing efficiencies and better arranging its working force with the needs of the business."
Mad Catz encountered a major problem
Mad Catz's bread and butter was its partnership with the RockBand franchise. In the third fiscal quarter of 2016, the company boasted a net sales increment of 114%, or $65 million, which was its second-highest quarterly net sales ever. Despite the high sales numbers, a number of products sold alongside the new Rock Band 4 game were lower than expected.
In March, the company took a huge blow when Harmonix, the development branch for Rock Band, announced that Performance Designed Products (PDP) will be its new partner for all Rock Band peripherals. The change in peripheral accomplices implied that Mad Catz was losing money like never before.
Looking through the future
For Mad Catz, the sale of Saitek means that it has some money in its pocket after its latest failures. As for Logitech, it has now an opportunity to expand its product line with new products and gain an even bigger range of customers.
