Logitech -- First SightSpeed and Now LifeSize -- Now 100% Committed to Business Videoconferencing

The video communications/conferencing space is near and dear to me, of course, since I ran the desktop video communications leader, SightSpeed, for 3 years and until we were acquired by Logitech in November of last year.

Well, Logitech is at it again -- taking a major shot across Tandberg's, Cisco's, Polycom's and HP's bows -- by announcing that it will acquire videoconferencing company LifeSize Communications for $405 million in cold hard cash. Looking at Logitech's balance sheets, that price represents a nice slice of the company's cash war chest (Logi held approximately $490 million in cash as of the end of Q1 2009).

Why SightSpeed first and LifeSize now? Quite simple. Logitech is looking for new growth vehicles, and it sees business videoconferencing as one such driver. So, do the other companies I mention in this post. But, with its 1-2 punch of LifeSize and SightSpeed (the consumer version of which is now called Logitech's Vid), Logitech will now be able to uniquely seamlessly integrate the business videoconferencing experience from the boardroom with the desktop (via the SightSpeed technology), providing potentially millions of videoconferencing endpoints (rather than simply conference room to conference room). This flexibility will be a critical point of differentiation for the company as it battles the other videoconferencing behemoths.

Lots of bets are being placed that we are only in inning 2 of a 9 inning videoconferencing market opportunity with billions of dollars ultimately at stake.

My bet is with the power of video ... and my bet is that Logitech will be a significant winner ...