Logitech Announces an Agreement with Yahoo! to Personalize Instant Messaging with Webcam Power

Business Wire, June 26, 2001

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 26, 2001

Marketing Agreement Brings a New "Face" to the Booming

Online Communications Market

Logitech Inc. (Nasdaq:LOGIY) (Switzerland: LOGN, LOGZ), a leading maker of Webcams, and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global communications, commerce and media company, today announced an agreement that will promote Logitech's popular QuickCam(R) family of Webcams as an ideal means to take advantage of Yahoo!'s newly announced integration of Webcam functionality now integrated with Yahoo!(R) Messenger (http://messenger.yahoo.com). This new capability will enable Yahoo! Messenger users to communicate "face-to-face" while instant messaging with friends, family and colleagues, up to one frame per second.

Starting in July, all Logitech Webcams sold in North America, certain countries in Europe and Australia will be bundled with Yahoo! Messenger. Both Yahoo! Messenger users and current Logitech Webcam users can download the necessary software to enable instant messaging with Webcam functionality by going to http://messenger.yahoo.com.

Instant messaging has become today's fastest growing communications trend. According to researchers at IDC, by 2005, there will be nearly 230 million users of business instant messaging applications worldwide, with more than two trillion messages sent annually by both consumers and business users.

Communications specialists also see a positive future for instant messaging, and especially, for the visual element in online communication. "Adding live images to instant messages is a means to make online communication more personal," said Dr. Lillian Beeson, Professor of Communications at the University of Pittsburgh. "People have tried to humanize electronic communications by using emoticons, but this new capability will more fully enable nonverbal exchange to occur online. In the `real world,' the nonverbal element represents a significant portion of the overall exchange that takes place." As a leader in innovative online visual communication, with more than four million QuickCam units sold during the last year alone, Logitech is well positioned to provide this nonverbal component.

The agreement also includes Yahoo! GeoCities (http://geocities.yahoo.com) which will incorporate Webcam functionality.

"The combination of Yahoo!'s online communication expertise and Logitech's proven Webcam technology adds a new dimension to an already vibrant market," said Junien Labrousse, vice president of Logitech's Video Business Division. "The companies have augmented the current expansion of Webcams and electronic communications with a completely new Internet experience."

"As the first instant messaging provider to integrate Webcam functionality, Yahoo! continues its commitment to provide consumers and businesses with the best of communication tools via Yahoo! Messenger," said Lisa Pollock, director of Messaging Products at Yahoo!. "We are pleased to be working with Logitech, as they have proven to be a market leader in PC video technology."

About Logitech: Founded in 1981, Logitech designs, manufactures and markets human interface devices and software that link people to digital information and the Internet and enable them to work, play, learn and communicate more effectively in the digital world. The Company's product family includes Internet video cameras; mice, trackballs and keyboards; audio and telephony products; and interactive gaming controllers. With operational headquarters through its U.S. subsidiary in Fremont, California, and regional headquarters through local subsidiaries in Romanel, Switzerland, and Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C., Logitech International is a Swiss public company traded in Switzerland under the symbols LOGN and LOGZ, and in the U.S. on the Nasdaq National Market System (LOGIY). The company has manufacturing facilities in Asia and offices in major cities in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

For more information about Logitech and its products, visit the company's Web Site at www.logitech.com.

Note to Editors: Logitech, the Logitech logo and QuickCam are registered trademarks of Logitech Inc. Yahoo! and the Yahoo! logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Yahoo! Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the new opportunity for growth in sales of the Company. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual performance could differ materially from that anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including the timing of new product introductions by the Company and its competitors and their acceptance by the market, timely availability and pricing of products and components, price protection charges and product returns from customers, the impact of competition on the Company's average selling prices and operating expenses, inventory management and exposures, the outcome of ongoing intellectual property disputes, technological changes and their acceptance by the market, fluctuations in exchange rates, general economic conditions, as well as generally those additional factors set forth in the Company's Annual Report on Form 20-F dated May 31, 2001 available from the SEC's Edgar database at http://www.sec.gov and upon request from Logitech by calling 510/713-4220.