Logitech Focuses the Lens on LifeSize for $405 Million
Excerpt from the InvestorGuide.com Stock of the Day on 11/11/2009

Logitech has agreed to acquire LifeSize Communications for $405 million in cash. LifeSize Communications is an $80 million dollar startup company that specializes in offering HD video conferencing technology and services to businesses. Logitech has been looking for an opportunity to expand its market scope, and LifeSize appears to be it. However, Logitech's strong suit is more aligned with providing telecommunication and computer peripheral products to consumers not businesses. Despite the difference in targeted customers, Logitech seems eager to break out of its comfort zone and breach new horizons. But why is Logitech so anxious to enter an industry flooded with powerhouse competitors like Cisco (CSCO: Charts, News, Offers), Microsoft (MSFT: Charts, News, Offers), and IBM (IBM: Charts, News, Offers)?

Logitech believes that LifeSize's technology will, "make lifelike, HD-quality video communication as mainstream and seamless as a telephone." It is with this rationale and purpose that Logitech enters the teleconferencing industry. Logitech intends to expand on LifeSize's current business model of offering affordable videoconferencing technologies. Logitech International will continue to service the traditional business clients with boardroom installations, but it also recognizes that LifeSize's affordable technology has the ability to push the breadth of potential customer markets much wider. Logitech sees the opportunity to offer HD teleconferencing capabilities to home webcam users at a reasonable price, which it believes to be a lucrative market. More »