Wednesday, November 14th 2007

Mad Catz Acquires Saitek for $30 Million

Mad Catz Interactive, a leading third-party interactive entertainment accessory provider, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100 percent of the shares of the private holding company that owns Saitek's worldwide operations. Saitek is a leading worldwide provider of PC games accessories, PC input devices and multimedia audio products. The deal cost Mad Catz $30 million, $15.5 million of which was in cash and borrowings, and the rest in convertible notes at a rate of 7.5 per cent. Commenting on the transaction, Darren Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz, said, "PC games peripherals is a category closely adjacent to our core console business and we are thrilled to be adding one of the world's leading providers to the Mad Catz family. Saitek significantly enhances Mad Catz' position as one of the world's leading games peripherals companies and provides us an entree into the businesses of PC mice, keyboards and speakers and electronic chess and intelligent games.
Source: Saitek
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16 Comments on Mad Catz Acquires Saitek for $30 Million

#1
KennyT772
S*** There goes my main choice for good joysticks.
Posted on Reply
#2
bigboi86
KennyT772S*** There goes my main choice for good joysticks.
Yeah I know.. Mad Catz sucks.. and I hope they see this.

Thanks for buying out a good company, Ass Hatz.
Posted on Reply
#3
FreedomEclipse
~Technological Technocrat~
Never heard of Mad catz here in the UK. ive heard of the black catz - they are some sorta gang lurking around the uk somewhere.

saitek did make exceptionally good joysticks. not just physically but cosmetically aswell. I once had a saitek cyborg 3d rumble joystick. i loved it but it had a bug with BF2 where anything i was flying would tilt the the right hand side for no reason what so ever & since BF2 was out long before the joystick & still nobody had come up with a fix I returned the saitek & got me a Logitech Precision 3d Extreme Pro which kicks ass but without the rumble :(

guess I'l have to stick with logitechs gear. hopefully the saitek X52 flight kit will still be on sale when i decide its time to upgrade
Posted on Reply
#4
jocksteeluk
Mad Katz make a lot of console third party peripherals like steering wheels and stuff here in the uk, i am guessing they want to broaden their scope by purchasing saitek.
Posted on Reply
#5
hat
Enthusiast
Hm, I have a Mad Catz PS1 memory card :roll:
Posted on Reply
#6
MopeyMartian
Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Guess I'll have to treat my Eclipse II like gold now. Mad Catz peripherals are just fugly and cheap.
Posted on Reply
#7
Wile E
Power User
I hope they keep Saitek's development team. I hate Mad Katz products. They're cheaply made.
Posted on Reply
#8
WarEagleAU
Bird of Prey
Actually, I like Mad Catz products. They are reasonably priced and reasonably well made. Ive never had anything of theirs break or quit working on me just out of the blue. I had a PS1 controller of theirs for 5 years and after enough throwing, dropping, hitting, etc...it finally just gave out and died.
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#9
Solaris17
Super Dainty Moderator
WTF NOOOOOOOO i better buy my saitek stuff now.
Posted on Reply
#10
burtram
oh my god! its the end of the world! at least saitek quality products world... this really blows...... i hope they leave the name and all that goes with it in tact, that way mad cats quality (or lack there of) wont rub off into saitek.... tis a sad day indeed...
Posted on Reply
#11
AsRock
TPU addict
KennyT772S*** There goes my main choice for good joysticks.
Yep most likely :(
Posted on Reply
#12
zekrahminator
McLovin
I never did like joysticks... :p.

Mad Catz did make what in my opinion was a TERRIBLE, oversized, and ugly (but cheap) PS1 controller. And they made a lot of really cheap PS1 memory cards that got the job done. That's all I can really say about Mad Catz, I haven't used any of their products in quite some time.
Posted on Reply
#13
MadCow
I bought a used mad catz xbox controller off ebay and both analogue sticks were screwed up, they didn't center properly. And I had friends who used mad catz controllers and they all said they suck. Such a shame that rich companies than make crap products always buy out the smaller, better compnanies.
Posted on Reply
#14
Darkrealms
NOOOOO!!!

I love my Saitek joystick!
Only one possible hope :( Mad Catz fires their team and pays the Saitek team more and starts making quality innovative products. . . @_o
. . . Saitek is doomed >(
Posted on Reply
#15
AddSub
Awww, what a great loss. /sacrasm off

Since when Saitek = quality? I thought they made shiny, bling-bling, weird for the sake of weird peripherals that only easily impressed 13 year old boys and their "older" mental equivalents bought... *AddSub looks around* Oh, I see, never mind.
Posted on Reply
#16
Wile E
Power User
AddSubAwww, what a great loss. /sacrasm off

Since when Saitek = quality? I thought they made shiny, bling-bling, weird for the sake of weird peripherals that only easily impressed 13 year old boys and their "older" mental equivalents bought... *AddSub looks around* Oh, I see, never mind.
I like my Saitek Eclipse keyboard (clean and simple, plus the backlighting helps at night, as I'm a hunt-n-peck typist. lol), and their joysticks are top notch. No other experience with them, tho. I will say that their quality far surpases that of Mad Catz. Any Mad Catz anything I've ever owned was cheaply made, and broke in a relatively short period of time.
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