Google has entered into an agreement to acquire Nest, the business behind the smart thermostat and smoke detector, for $3.2 billion in cash.
“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," Larry Page, cofounder and CEO of Google, said in a statement. "We are excited to bring great experiences to more homes in more countries and fulfill their dreams!”
Nest was founded by Tony Fadell, a former Apple employee who is credited with being the brains behind the iPod, in 2010. Fadell will continue to run Nest and the company will operate as a standalone brand under Google.
“We’re thrilled to join Google," Fadell said in a statement. "With their support, Nest will be even better placed to build simple, thoughtful devices that make life easier at home, and that have a positive impact on the world.”
In a separate blog post published on Nest's website, Fadell emphasized that he believes Google has the "business resources, global scale and platform" to accelerate Nest's growth "across hardware, software and services for the home globally."
As Fadell points out in the post, Nest and Google have had a long relationship, which included Google investing in Nest through its venture capital investment arm Google Ventures.
This decision wasn’t made on a whim – Google has been in the mix in some way or another for about three years of our almost four-year history. In fact, my first meeting with Google as a Nester was before we’d launched. At the 2011 TED Conference, Erik Charlton and I huddled in a corner with Sergey Brin to show him a video and an early model of the Nest Learning Thermostat – he instantly got what we were doing and so did the rest of the Google team when we showed them. In May 2011, Google Ventures led our Series B round of financing, and in 2012, Series C. Time and time again, Googlers have shown themselves to be incredibly like-minded, supportive and as big of dreamers as we are. I know that joining Google will be an easy transition because we’re partnering with a company that gets what we do and who we are at Nest –and wants us to stay that way.
Earlier this month, news broke that Nest was looking to raise $150 million in funding at a valuation of $2 billion.
The acquisition could give Google a strong footing in the growing market for Internet-connected household devices. Some have also speculated that it might provide Google with even more data on its users, though Nest noted in its blog post that it will continue to take user privacy "seriously."
While this is certainly a large acquisition, it's not the company's biggest. Google bought Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, another hardware-focused business, in 2011. Google had $56.5 billion in cash and marketable securities as of the end of the third quarter of 2013.
Google stock was up slightly in after hours trading.
http://mashable.com/2014/01/13/google-buys-nest-for-3-2-billion/#!
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