New from Logitech: Cordless Optical Recession Mouse
by John Paczkowski
Posted on January 20, 2009 at 7:43 AM PT
The deepening global recession has apparently ruined the consumer appetite for computer accessories. To wit, Logitech International SA, the world’s largest maker of such devices, said today that sales fell for the first time in at least seven years.
Well, plunged is actually a better word–or perhaps, plummeted, arms flailing–into the void. Because Logitech’s net income for the third quarter fell a horrific 70 percent to $40.5 million. Analysts polled by Dow Jones had been forecasting $82.5 million–already, quite a bit less than the $133.6 million Logitech posted last year.
So this is a precipitous drop. And it’s one that’s forced the company to announce sweeping job cuts. Logitech (LOGI) will sack between 550 and 600 employees in the coming months.
For now, Logitech is cash-rich enough to survive ugliness like this, and it will almost certainly recover. But not for a while: “All indications point to an even weaker retail environment in the coming months,” the company said in a statement. “The deepening global recession had a significant impact on our operating performance as our customers continued to reduce inventory in the face of weaker consumer demand.”
[Image Credit: Instructables]
