Slim Devices, maker of the Squeezebox networked digital music player, has been plugged into mouse manufacturer Logitech, the two firms announced last night. Logitech will pay $20m in cash for the firm - maybe more if the new subsidiary hits undisclosed future revenue targets.

Slim Devices portrayed the acquisition as a beneficial one. Certainly, the deal brings the company and its products access to a wider, more retail-friendly and consumer-savvy marketing and distribution operation. Logitech's manufacturing and supply chain skills will come in handy too.

But some of the other gains it mentioned - Logitech's "expertise in interface-product design and amplified-audio systems" - are actually skills Slim Devices has already demonstrated it possesses. The real benefit is financial, for the closely held firm's founders and other shareholders.

Logitech is itself no stranger to wireless music systems, but its efforts have largely been pitched as add-ons to other devices - PCs, iPods - than as must-have gadgets in their own right.

Related stories

• Logitech revamps Squeezebox as Duet
• Sonos slims multi-room digital music bundle price
• Decriminalise iPod users, think-tank tells UK gov't
• Sooloos sings praises of high-end lossless music system
• Logitech turns wireless stereo 'phones up to 11
• Sonos updates network music player code
• Logitech revamps wireless music kit with full remote control
• Slim Devices' Squeezebox supports Rhapsody DRM
• Sonos slims wireless music playback box

Slim Devices will at least retain its identity and culture, operating as a "distinct group" within Logitech's entertainment and communications products division. That should help assuage fears on the part of the company's many open source software contributors that their collaborative efforts will not be exploited. ®

Related reviews

Slim Devices Transporter high-end digital audio player
Sonos ZonePlayer ZP80 and digital music system
Slim Devices Squeezebox 3 network music player
Logitech Wireless Headphones for iPod