So rumours are rife that Microsoft is looking to buy-out everyone's favourite peripheral company Logitech as a move to get back into being a leading peripheral manufacturer.

No real news to give, but I thought some people might be interested.

The CVG article
The Engadget article
The Kotaku article

Now how this is going to pan out is anyone's guess, but a 12% stock rise means that someone thinks it's likely to happen.
Will we see G25s working on our Xbox 360s? Will Mac users get screwed over? Only time will tell.

I hope it wont happen...

<----- gets on the phone to his stock broker.

MS offering 48 Swiss francs per share, Logitech will be worth about 10 billion francs, whats that in real money ?

And yeah i'd say the likelyhood is the G25 will be available on the Xbox before too long if past MS history is anything to go by.

But the real plus for me will be a lots of MS Flightsim hardware additions, imagine a Flight Yoke the quality of the G25 Mmm me likes

No reason it can't happen. MS definitely has the cash for it, and since like 99% of Logitech sales wil be to Windows users anyway, they can't lose.
And they'd benefit from being able to make the 360 wheels they've recently been talking about.

Lets hope this means they make DFP's and G25's work on 360

Yeah, when i mentioned the Xbox i did mean the 360.

I think the only thing us as consumers need to keep an eye on is a price rise of the goods. With Logitech in the bag i can't really think of any decent competitor for MS now, they'll practically have the market to themselves.

As long as the Logitech reputation stands behind the peripherals I think that this is not too bad. If Microsoft takes over and decides the G25 would be more profitable by using plastics and rubber and starts with some sort of cheap peripheral then this is gonna be terrible. Only time will tell, lets hope for the best.

I don't think it will happen, and don't want it to happen.

What will happen to Sony Playstation products if Microsoft buy them? What will happen to our choices of Microsoft or Logitech gaming peripherals? No fun if it is all by Microsoft, hmpffff.

Sigh...more Microsoft "if you can't beat 'em, buy 'em"

Quote from epp_b :

Sigh...more Microsoft "if you can't beat 'em, buy 'em"

Companies buying other companies happens all the time in the real world. Somehow when MS does it, they are always evil and looking for world domination.

Anyway, not that I really want them to buy Logitech. I never understood why they got out of this market anyway, they made some decent stuff. Still have a 12 year old Sidewinder lying around here. I hardly use it anymore these days, but it's still in great shape.

Quote from joen :

Companies buying other companies happens all the time in the real world. Somehow when MS does it, they are always evil and looking for world domination.

- Not every company blatantly steals their ideas from other companies.
- Not every company produces a PoS everytime they do produce (read: rehash) something.
- Not every company is trying to be a monopoly.





Regards,

Ian

Quote from Tweaker :

I don't think it will happen, and don't want it to happen.

What will happen to Sony Playstation products if Microsoft buy them? What will happen to our choices of Microsoft or Logitech gaming peripherals? No fun if it is all by Microsoft, hmpffff.

That's what i was thinking, I don't own a PS3, but I have a strong feeling that if MS does buy Logitech, wheels won't be compatable. Better buy your wheels now people

Quote from Ian.H :

- Not every company is trying to be a monopoly.

Whether you like it or not, it is clever.

Quote from Ian.H :

- Not every company blatantly steals their ideas from other companies.

Get real. It happens all the time.

Quote :

- Not every company produces a PoS everytime they do produce (read: rehash) something.

Blablabla, fud. I seriously am not an MS fanboy but if you're trying to tell me everything MS makes is crap you're talking out of your arse. Their peripherals like I already said are not crap. Vista is crap, I'll grant you that, but I have no problems whatsoever with XP.

Quote :

- Not every company is trying to be a monopoly.

MS isn't even in this market, so how would they have a monopoly or how could you say anything about their desire to? Oh right, they have a monopoly on the OS market so they have a monopoly in every market they wish to step.

And I'm pretty sure most companies wouldn't refuse (near) monopoly in their market if they had a chance.

Not really interested in taking this further.

Why would they want to make hardware not compatible with the PS3? They'd be closing down half their sales if they did that; which is not sensible. Not everyone is going to rush out and buy a 360 just because their favourite wheel is not compatible with the PS3, in fact they'll probably just download something for the PS3 to make it work...

Microsoft Game Studios sell games that are compatible with Macs, so I don't see any reason why "mac users are going to get screwed over". I'm aware that MGS is a separate franchise to the other parts of Microsoft; but it is (speculating here) probably company policy to let their products reach a wider range of people, not just MS OS and gaming systems.

Quote from nmx :

MGS only release games on the XBOX 360 as far as console gaming goes, they try to keep as little as possible being compatible with other systems.

Yeah I guess that makes sense; but taking over a company that has been supplying Sony compatible hardware for years and stopping the compatability would surely alert the economic authorities; because it's simply not fair.

NEVER :bananadea

Quote from nmx :

For example, Logitech are making a special G25 for Grand Turismo 5

What?

Got any more info on this?

I think if MS buys logitech, logitech will still be ''running'' it so it wont be bad. All my computer products are logitech, im a die hard fan ''well since they have replaced my g25 4 times'' anyways, MS would still do Sony products like yall said, bc thats a big customer group and they woundt want to end that, nor make sony there new enimes. So they have to be smart on there moves. Time will tell.

Quote from joen :

Get real. It happens all the time.

Sure it happens some times, m$ seem to make a big habit of it (Xerox.. Apple to name just 2).

Quote :

Blablabla, fud. I seriously am not an MS fanboy but if you're trying to tell me everything MS makes is crap you're talking out of your arse. Their peripherals like I already said are not crap. Vista is crap, I'll grant you that, but I have no problems whatsoever with XP.

All windoze OSes are a PoS. You might not have any problems because my guess is you don't _really_ use the OS.. you just run pretty apps on top of it. When you're faced with digging deep into the OS, things change considerably (XP comes with a Registry.. that alone is a complete PoS). XP is far from being a true multi-user OS either.. which it tries so hard to be... yet Unix has been doing this for donkeys years (no, I'm, not trying to start a Unix vs windoze war.. just used as a comparison that even in this day, m$ can't get it right).

Quote :

MS isn't even in this market, so how would they have a monopoly or how could you say anything about their desire to? Oh right, they have a monopoly on the OS market so they have a monopoly in every market they wish to step.

It was a general statement. If you seriously can't see it, I hear specsavers are doing good deals atm

Quote :

And I'm pretty sure most companies wouldn't refuse (near) monopoly in their market if they had a chance.

Possibly not, thankfully it doesn't always happen. Monopolies are bad for consumers.

Quote :

Not really interested in taking this further.

Then why post again?



Regards,

Ian

Quote from Jakg :

What?

Got any more info on this?

There's no info because there probably is no wheel either... All these rumours are coming from an interview where Kazunori or some other guy mentioned "new wheel" without actually mentioning Logitech by name but obviously people are expecting that. And as far as I remember that interview happened long time ago, at least 6 months ago.

And on top of that, Logitech just last month launched G25 for Japanese markets, only difference is that it says Logicool on the wheel which is Logitech brand name in Japan. It just seems unlikely that they would be doing a new "premium" wheel right now. Plus, G25 already fully supports PS3.

Only GOOD thing I can think of if this MS buy thing happens, is that maybe Logitech could finally make drivers that works without inexplicable bugs (endless mouse acceleration problems, anyone?). But if it happens, Logitech Quality Wheels, RIP 2001-2008.

.

Quote from Ian.H :

You might not have any problems because my guess is you don't _really_ use the OS.. you just run pretty apps on top of it.

STFU Ian you don´t know anything about what I do and don´t do.

Quote from joen :

STFU Ian you don´t know anything about what I do and don´t do.

heh.. how cute!

Of course I don't.. but your reply suggested to me that you basically use the OS to run applications and not much more (that's not having a pop at you.. that's no different than 95% of people who run windoze).

I spend a lot of time coding and have spent countless hours manually cleaning up virus infected boxes over the years (something I actually enjoy doing ) at which point, you really start to see where windoze is crap.



Regards,

Ian

Quote from joen :

Get real. It happens all the time.

Blablabla, fud. I seriously am not an MS fanboy but if you're trying to tell me everything MS makes is crap you're talking out of your arse. Their peripherals like I already said are not crap. Vista is crap, I'll grant you that, but I have no problems whatsoever with XP.

MS isn't even in this market, so how would they have a monopoly or how could you say anything about their desire to? Oh right, they have a monopoly on the OS market so they have a monopoly in every market they wish to step.

And I'm pretty sure most companies wouldn't refuse (near) monopoly in their market if they had a chance.

Not really interested in taking this further.

have to agree with you cause if microsoft does buy logitech g25 prices would probably rise and there would be no way to get a decent wheel without being overcharged if microsoft does buy logitech... but even if they do at least the quality would improve a bit... Microsoft is just jealous that they cant do anything about apple winning (ipod vs. zune) or logitech vs microsoft (not that microsoft has alot of wheels) curently they have a 360 wheel out.......

What about that G25 mod that Logitech made for the BMW events where they used LFS too, BTW? I hoped they'd release it. Anyone heard anything about that?