Launching rumors is a specialty mastered by certain PR and Marcom companies. Nice Ventures is not interested in such ethically low level work, so we don't use such "marketing techniques". When I read about the rumor of Microsoft aiming to acquire Logitech, it also seemed to be a fabricated rumor at first sight; but maybe there is more to it.

Microsoft tries to become leader in its business segments. The company is pretty persistent and doesn't give up easily or quickly, quite different from other US tech companies, who tend to go for big bangs and are quickly out of it again when things don't work out as predicted. This is due to the immense pressure coming from shareholders and powerful analysts, of course. Engadget thinks that it would not make much sense for Microsoft to acquire Logitech since their products overlap. Of course what the gadget blog site does not take into consideration is the fact that such a takeover would not be about products but about market share, and would catapult Microsoft into becoming the number one PC accessory vendor, so getting them into the position they seek in all their business units. Therefore it would make sense.

Would it make sense for Logitech too? Being in Switzerland, it is of course hardly possible not to have had contact with them, and we have met some of the founders and key people. All hard-working, fully detail-oriented, quite modest and determined guys who - like Microsoft - don't give up quickly. They are also pragmatic and move to where things make sense. They moved production to China a long long time ago (and then moved their location from hotspot to the inland for cost and IPR reasons); they also started production in Eastern Europe. When total costs including transportation made sense to have production for Europe in Hungary they moved there. Logitech also - while still headquartered somewhere in the countryside in the French-speaking part of Switzerland - moved their second headquarters to South San Francisco to tap into high-caliber US tech marketing expertise. So the companies' values are not so far apart at all, and that would not be a hurdle, I think. Maybe the biggest pro for an acquisition could be the fact that the Logitech founders are at a stage in their lives where new things with new money (preferably a lot of them) could be interesting. Cashing out to Microsoft seems a strong incentive, and the 38% premium to Logitech's share price that the rumors say Microsoft offers could convince the rest.

Soon we will know how far this rumor goes...