Logitech acquires SightSpeed
Logitech announced Tuesday that it has paid about $30 million in cash to acquire SightSpeed, a maker of cross-platform video chat and calling software. It's a logical acquisition for Logitech, which includes video cameras among its large portfolio of peripherals for PCs.
Berkeley, Calif.-based SightSpeed was founded in 2001 and has 25 employees. SightSpeed's video communications solution is based on the session initiation protocol (SIP) and offers 30 frame-per-second video and an integrated instant messaging service. SightSpeed supports 640 x 480 video windows at any speeds above 1.5 Mbps, multiparty conference calls and in-call file sharing. A free version is available and pricing for the SightSpeed Plus for consumers is $9.95 per month or $99.95 per year. Pricing for the more full-featured Business edition starts at $19.95 per user per month or $189.95 per year. The acquisition is expected to close next month.
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Still, unless both you and your webcam buddy are using Logitech's cameras that support Skype's dual-processor mode, SightSpeed probably delivers the best picture. But I can't get my far-flung relatives to try it. It was hard enough moving some of them to Skype, and the last thing they want is yet another videochat program.