Logitech to buy Sightspeed

LOGITECH, the Swiss company perhaps best known for building PC mice, announced yesterday that it will acquire upstart Internet video company Sightspeed of Berzerkley, California for about $30 million in cash.

In a statement, Logitech said Sightspeed will contribute Internet video calling technology and resources for developing cross-platform video communications between people using PCs or standalone, dedicated two-way video devices.

"With this acquisition, we are significantly augmenting our current video R &D resources to help us move more quickly toward our goals for video services that complement the way people socialize, communicate and enjoy entertainment," burbled a happy Junien Labrousse, Logitech products group executive vice president.

"According to our research, there is a large untapped market of people who want to communicate with friends and family using video. But they want it to be integrated into their family lifestyle, which means going beyond the PC. We believe with SightSpeed we can help create the next wave of video communications enthusiasts," he continued.

Privately held Sightspeed was founded in 2001 and currently has about 25 employees. The company's Internet enabled video services are based upon the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) network interoperability standard.

Using SIP could make Logitech Sightspeed's video communications products and services more readily compatible with those of competing vendors, unlike the products offered by Ebay's Skype, which are based upon closed, proprietary interfaces and protocols.

So usable videophones might actually tip up at last, about 50 years after they were first predicted.

But then again, the government spook agencies will likely figure out how to turn the things on remotely – as they already have done with cellphones – so we'll all have surveillance TVs in our homes and offices that are right out of George Orwell's 1984 or the movie Brazil. µ