Slim sale means fat return for Tai

Mouse maker Logitech International (Nasdaq: LOGI) last week paid $20 million in cash (plus possible earn-outs) to acquire Slim Devices Inc., which makes systems that allow consumers to share digital music throughout their homes.

Slim, founded in 2001, had angel backing from Bill Tai, a general partner at Charles River Ventures. Tai funded the company through his personal fund, Authentic Ventures, before he joined CRV.

“This was a great one,” Tai told PE Week. “The company touched profitability on the seed I put together and we added one more working capital financing after that.” He’ll make 10x on the investment based on the purchase price, and he stands to make even more through a performance-based payment tied to revenue targets.

The deal is part of Logitech’s home entertainment push to extend its reach into developing hardware devices that run off of the PC.