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Heads up, ladies and gents — Google has just announced a big acquisition worth $3.2 billion in cold, hard cash. That money will go toward buying Nest, the company that makes smart home thermostats, smoke alarms and CO2 detectors. The sale was announced on the company’s Investor Relations portal today, with CEO Larry Page commenting on the move:
Nest’s founders, Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, have built a tremendous team that we are excited to welcome into the Google family. They’re already delivering amazing products you can buy right now–thermostats that save energy and smoke/CO alarms that can help keep your family safe. We are excited to bring great experiences to more homes in more countries and fulfill their dreams!
Google says Nest will continue to operate as its own brand and entity under CEO Tony Fadell, much like what Motorola did after they were acquired by Google in 2012. Google expects the regulatory approvals process to last only a few months, and fully expects the sale to successfully close within the first half of this year.
Nest’s line of products have been at the forefront of the connected home movement, giving folks a very nice option for being able to monitor and adjust home conditions on the go. Their thermostat helps save energy by allowing you to adjust heat and cooling while you’re away from home, so you can leave the thermostat off while you’re at work, and have it cool or heat your home just before you get back for the day.
Nest has also developed a CO2 detector + smoke alarm, so you can make sure your home is safe while you’re out and about by keeping an eye on its condition using your smartphone or tablet.
It’s a big move for Google who has been previously rumored to be working on their own smart home solutions. While we still have yet to see Google’s own plans come to light in official fashion, this sale definitely tells us their hat is in the smart home arena. For more on Nest and what they offer, be sure to take a gander at their website.
Holy shish kabob, is there a market Google doesn’t have their hands in? Seriously excited, as they’ll probably reduce the price on the product to make it more affordable!
Hopefully we can get a standard for home automation soon. There are a bunch of cool systems out there but it’s hard to say if any of them will be maintained for more than another year or 2 after release.
I was thinking about buying a Nest but went with a cheap $20 thermostat. Hopefully Google will make Nest much more affordable!
I love my nest and am about to get the smoke detector. I’m super surprised – but now that I think about it – not surprised at all.. to read this.
It was just a matter of time before it was either them or Apple. Glad Google made the move first.
Nah, it’s not really Apple’s thing. They like making stuff that you can show off. It’s hard to flash your Nest in public to impress the other hipsters.
Apple makes plenty of products that you don’t show off in public
/your snark detector is broken.
I hate Apple, I could tell he was trying to make a joke. Point was that Apple makes a ton of products that you don’t bring to the mall and show off to the public…plus, Apple was already selling these in their stores so the comment made no sense
Welcome androidized home.
And Fadell was the original designer of the iPod that they ran out of Apple. D’OH.
I live in such a janky old house with window A/C and radiator heating that a NEST thermostat doesn’t make much sense. We only ever turn the great on when it drops below 45ish anyway, and the odd thing is that the colder it gets the hotter the upstairs gets due to the temp sensor on the lower floor and the radiators all connected together vs independent.
Something like this will definitely be in my “next” steakhouse though
$3.2B for something so specialized? Even $1B seems a bit much.
I’m sure there were other offers and Google had the most money and desire to buy them. 3.2B will take a long time to repay by selling Nests, but the patents and such are worth far more.
I think their trying to buy the developers and patents rather than “Nest” itself.
Maybe bringing Android@Home back?
Their parents are worth the price, also, sticking it to Apple (Nest is sold in Apple stores) makes it well worth it. A home that can be “Androidized” is something I look forward to.
Google sees Nest as a company that brings innovative technology to what was once seen as boring home appliances. Nest won’t stop with just smoke alarms and thermostats and Google knows that. Google has wanted to transform the house into one coherent ecosystem for awhile now and Nest is a great way of getting the ball rolling. Add in the fact that they’re taking this away from Apple (they were looking into buying it AND one of the founders of Nest invented the iPod) only makes this feel so much sweeter
I had no idea what this acquisition meant but this puts it all into perspective. Thanks
.com bubble v2.0
There is no way that this company can repay 3.2 billons with the current or similar Nest devices, even if they are great and beautiful like they are.
They are building other stuff that we don’t know, or they are crazy (business wise). You can buy a small country with that money…
Unless the value of a never ending data stream about what a person does at home drops to zero, this is far from a bubble.
The Nexus Nest? YES PLEASE!
Well since crApple was looking into buying Nest, I guess we will see a ton more litigation as retribution for stealing it out from under them.
I love my Nest products and also love my Google/Android products. I can’t wait to see what new things this purchase will bring. Love it.
CO2 detectors? That’s carbon dioxide. Isn’t it a carbon monoxide detector?
They meant CO, but nowadays CO2 is so evil in the news, that is sounds dangerous. The only way a CO2 detector would be a benefit in the home there were fresh air dampers on your house air handling unit to control the CO2 level, but 99% of home arent equipped with this. Only for commercial buildings.
they should just buy apple and put android on the iphone
There is already enough ugly, underpowered, and tiny Android phones out there. Why would Google want to add another one?
First off, I’m all for Android. Google’s board of directors would probably rather commit ritual suicide than buy Apple outright. Same goes for Apple, probably. As surprising as it may be, iPhones have remarkable processing speeds, battery life and the ever-present cool factor in North America. Still think Google’s Nexus devices and several others are superior to them in terms of both hardware and software, though. Worst thing about Android phones is that they aren’t quite as efficient and compact as we’d like them to be.
*that their batteries aren’t*
Is anyone really surprised by this? This is a completely natural fit for Google and where they want to go in the future. Like I said when the Motorola Droid came out – In the future, one universal OS to embed in all of our devices will exist. It will be Android way more likely than it would ever be iO/S. But even it it’s not Android, it will be something other than iO/S.