Logitech steps further into streaming with the acquisition of Streamlabs, developer of the popular Streamlabs OBS software. The asking price? A cool $89 million in cash and an additional $29m in stock.
Streamlabs OBS allows users to broadcast game footage to platforms such as Twitch, YouTube Mixer and Facebook. It also provides tools for users to process and track tips, an in-game overlay adding the in-stream chat and access to themes and streaming applications. Streamlabs says around 1.6 million streamers use the tool, with 161 million hours streamed through it since a January 2018 beta launch. In addition, a mobile version of the app has around 48000 users.
Logitech has been pushing into game streaming for a while. It currently offers the hardware for such taks, such as webcams able to auto-remove everything behind the user for a greenscreen-style overlay effect. However it lacked the software to unify such efforts, and the Streamlabs acquisition brings exactly that.
Post-acquisition Streamlabs OBS should remain free, and the developer will continue supporting the software on Windows, Android and iOS.