Thursday, January 24, 2013

Logitech Plans Sale of Harmony, Security Divisions Following Dismal Quarter

Logitech Plans Sale of Harmony, Security Divisions Following Dismal Quarter -

Logitech Harmony OneLogitech is a brand well known to many Mac and iOS users for their frequently awesome accessories, but all isn't quite wine and roses following the company's quarterly results, with big changes coming in 2013.

Logitech announced its financial results for the third quarter of FY 2013, and they're not particularly good. Sales were down 14 percent to $615 million from the same quarter a year ago, resulting in a $180 million operating loss.

Needless to say, Logitech President and CEO Bracken P. Darrell is less than pleased, calling the results "unacceptable" and vowing to take "decisive action as an outcome of my strategic review."

While products such as Logitech's Ultrathin Keyboard Cover were among the few bright spots in Q3 -- and more tablet-centric products are incoming -- the CEO has some specific cuts in mind in order to reach his goal of "a faster and more profitable" Logitech.

"As a result, we have initiated the process to divest our remote controls and digital video security categories, and we plan to discontinue other non-strategic products, such as speaker docks and console gaming peripherals, by the end of Calendar Year 2013," the CEO announced in a press release.

The news will likely come as a shock to both home theatre and iOS fans, because it directly targets the company's popular Harmony universal remotes as well as speaker docks featuring built-in dock connectors.

Harmony remotes and the company's security products should survive with a new owner down the road, but it will be interesting to watch the changes unfold at Logitech throughout the next 11 months.

Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter

 

(Via Mac|Life all.)

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