In 2007 Mad Catz purchased relatively venerable PC peripheral maker Saitek for $30 million. After nearly nine years of flight sticks and farming controllers, Mad Catz is passing Saitek over to Logitech for a mere $13 million.
Being a relatively old man, I’ve been playing with Saitek stuff since not long after the company was founded back in 1979. One of the first bits of hardware I reviewed came from Saitek, a flight stick of some sort. I liked what they did.
So did Mad Catz, so they bought the company in 2007, had them do some wacky shit, and basically reduced its sale value to a fraction of what it was nearly a decade ago. Mad Catz will be holding on to the keyboards, mice and other salable items resulting from the original acquisition, while the brand and its line of flight, farming and other simulation controllers will be in Logitech’s hands, along with Saitek’s R&D department and equipment.
Here’s Karen McGinnis, president and CEO of Mad Catz, via official announcement, “After a thorough and deliberate process, we believe this sale to Logitech brings Mad Catz attractive and certain value for the flight, space and farm simulation line of Saitek products. We are pleased to find a company like Logitech that will lead Saitek into its next phase of growth and best support its strong acceptance within the flight simulation community while also allowing us to continue to leverage the world-class mice, keyboards and other products that were originally developed on the back of our acquisition of Saitek in 2007 and are now sold under the Mad Catz brand.”
Logitech feels like a much better fit for Saitek than Mad Catz ever was, so hopefully we’ll see big things coming in the future. I could use a nice flight stick.