Mouse company Logitech International has acquired the Hardware Business Unit of Connectix Corp for $25m in cash, taking on its QuickCam PC digital video camera business. Connectix introduced the first of its eyeball-shaped cameras back in 1994 for the Apple Macintosh, the first on the market to open up the outside visual world to the web. The one millionth unit was shipped recently. Logitech buys the camera business and the connected VideoPhone video conferencing software Connectix acquired from Invision Systems Corp back in 1995 (CI No 2,737). It already has its own line of web video cameras, but will take the QuickCam brand name and integrate the Connectix products with its own. Logitech, a $400m company with its headquarters in Switzerland and a US base in Fremont, California, says that digital video technology has taken off during the past year, and claims the acquisition makes it the market leader in a product category growing at 60% per annum. Sales are predicted to reach 12 million units by 2002, according to figures from the InfoTrends Research Group. Connectix recently previewed a USB version of the product for the forthcoming iMac, while Logitech already has USB products for the PC. Connectix will now concentrate on its RAM Doubler and Virtual PC for Macintosh Windows emulation software, as well as its newer Surf Express Web cacheing software, a new version of which is due out later this month.
