Can You Hear Me Now? Logitech Buys Microphone Firm Blue

Everyone used to be working on a novel. Now it seems like everybody wants to make a podcast, stream, or YouTube channel. All of those categories of content require a decent microphone, while video creators often need some kind of webcam. Logitech wants to be the main source of equipment for becoming the next viral sensation, which is why it acquired Blue Microphones for a reported $117 million in cash.

Blue is basically the purveyor of gateway audio equipment. Its microphones aren't the best in the market, but they are easy to set up and offer better sound quality than most of the entry-level competition. For years, the reigning advice to aspiring creators has been to buy a Blue Yeti, start your project and then graduate to higher-end microphones and other audio equipment if you find any success.

Logitech CEO Bracken Darrell said in a blog post that Blue's position in the creative market is exactly why his company wanted to snap it up:

“Logitech’s acquisition of Blue Microphones will accelerate our entry into a growing market and offers another way for us to help bring people’s passions (from music to blogging) to life. Joining with Blue is an adjacent opportunity for us – a new way to grow – with additional synergies related to our existing gaming, PC webcam and audio categories.”

Blue said in its announcement that joining Logitech makes sense from a product standpoint. Blue claims to sell the most popular mic used by streamers and said that Logitech sells the most popular webcam as well. Now, instead of having people buy that equipment from two sources, the companies will combine their efforts to make sure their products take up as much space on a podcaster or streamer's desk as possible.

Logitech isn't the first company to see the synergy between peripheral makers and streaming equipment companies. Corsair acquired Elgato earlier this year for the same reason, and NZXT announced today that it bought Forge, a "pioneer in creating tools for capturing and sharing PC gameplay." The distinction between "gamer" and "content creator" is disappearing; why shouldn't companies take advantage of that shift?