In what could be described as a rough year for Mad Catz, it seems they are now looking to shift some of their brands and associated assets to interested parties. While according to gamesindustry.biz 2016 has been a positive year for Mad Catz, with a 55% increase in revenue to $134.1 Million the company has seen losses to the tune of 11.6 Million this year with the blame being laid squarely at the frankly disappointing performance of Rock Band 4, which caused Mad Catz chairman, CEO and council to all resign in February this year with a close to 40% reduction in headcount occurring the following day.
With this back drop in mind, it makes today’s news of the sale of Saitek and its associated assets to Logitech all the more interesting. Mad Catz acquired Saitek in 2007 for $30 Million. Today’s sale saw them let the brand go for a mere $13 Million, quite a significant loss when all is said and done. Its likely the sale is another part of the various restructures and cost saving exercises designed to cull under-performing sections of the business and to try to swing Mad Cats into profitability that has been taking place this year.
In terms of Saiteks new owners Logitech the purchase should allow them to cement their already solid footing in the high end gaming hardware market, while their current G series mouse and keyboard offerings are held in fairly high regard by gamers they lack anything in the higher tier segment in regards to simulation controllers; today’s purchase should go someways towards changing that. Certainly with the recent explosive return of the space sim genre thanks to the likes of Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous and others their is call for competition in the high end HOTAS and sim interface market, hopefully today’s news should give the current heavy weights in this segment something to worry about in terms of competition.
Today’s revelation saw Mad Catz shares down by over 4%, while Logitech’s remain relatively unchanged.
Correction
The drop in share price quoted above actually occurred before the announcement of the acquisition was made since this occurred after the markets closed. Mad Catz (MCZ) is actually up 20% today after the impact of the announcement was able to be felt by the markets. Though bear in mind that while 20% seems a lot, Mad Catz share price is actually quite low so even a minor increase can seem quite large in this respect.