Wow, Corsair owns a lot of stuff now. The gaming accessory company first branched out into full-blown PCs by buying Origin, then streaming gear with Elgato, super-premium controllers with Scuf, and boutique keyboards and audiophile gear with Drop (formerly Massdrop). The company now has its sights on Fanatec, a maker of high-end gear for fans of simulation racing.
If you’re not up on the sim scene, Fanatec sells seriously pricey racing wheels, pedals, shifters, and even full racing chairs and “cockpits” for building a dedicated simulation rig. It’s the kind of stuff you see in the office-slash-gaming den of someone who’s poured multiple thousands of dollars into an amazing racing game setup. It fits in with Corsair’s ambitions of delivering everything a high-end gamer wants, from monitors to mice to manual gearboxes.
Corsair made the announcement in a press release, quoting both its own CEO and the CEO of Endor, owner of the Fanatec brand. The deal is in “exclusive negotiations” at the moment, and not finalized, because Endor has 70 million euros (about $75 million USD) in debt that needs to be addressed. But that should be small potatoes for Corsair, which claimed $1.4 billion in earnings in 2023.
Corsair’s expansions as of late have definitely steered towards the premium end of the market — Fanatec’s most expensive racing wheel is $1,500, for example. It’ll be interesting to see if the company keeps Fanatec in its own, extremely specialized space, or more completely integrates it into the parent company a la Elgato and Scuf.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer
Michael is a former graphic designer who's been building and tweaking desktop computers for longer than he cares to admit. His interests include folk music, football, science fiction, and salsa verde, in no particular order.