MadCatz has been, up til this point, basically a re-brander of computer parts and peripherals. You could find their stuff all over CompUSA and other similar places, though they also had online sales too.
It seems as though this move will allow them to rebrand Saitek equipment as MadCatz equipment, if they wanted to (though I wouldn't - Saitek is a reasonably well-known brand, and MadCatz isn't.)
The article says they plan on keeping all of Saitek's staff, so my guess is that, other than a name change, there probably won't be many changes.
And for all we know Saitek hasn't been releasing new joysticks due to a lack of cash, and this would take care of that. I guess...
-Llama