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Turtle Beach is buying PC gaming accessory brand Roccat for $19.2 million

Turtle Beach is buying PC gaming accessory brand Roccat for $19.2 million

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More peripheral consolidation

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Turtle Beach is known for gaming headsets, but it’ll soon be adding an entirely new roster of PC gaming peripherals to its catalog: it’s purchasing Roccat, a fine purveyor of mice, keyboards, mouse pads, and headsets, for $19.2 million in cash, stock, and earn-out payments, according to the press release.

These days, Turtle Beach is known more for value rather than quality, so Roccat will probably be a valuable, higher-end brand that the company can take advantage of. We wouldn’t expect to see the respected Roccat name disappear anytime soon.

But now might be a good time to pour one out for the idea of a successful indie peripheral brand to go it on their own. Turtle Beach and Roccat joining forces is just the latest example in a larger pattern of consolidation in the peripheral space, as giant Logitech continues to snap up popular brands and Razer expands its portfolio, too. So far, Logitech has absorbed Astro, Blue Microphones, Elgato’s gaming division, Jaybird, Saitek, and Ultimate Ears. Logitech reportedly had plans to buy Plantronics as well.

Meanwhile, Razer bought THX and indie phone company Nextbit, but has mostly expanded its lineup to include nearly every kind of peripheral that a gamer might need. Mad Catz once tried something similar by buying Saitek and Tritton, but financial woes forced it to divest both. (Mad Catz is back in business now.) Astro couldn’t quite make it on its own either: it was purchased by Skullcandy and later Mill Road Capital before winding up at Logitech. Corsair is still independent-ish, but it sold a majority share to EagleTree Capital.