Google's Nest Acquires Home Security Startup Dropcam For $555 Million
June 21, 2014
The Google-owned Nest Labs is set to purchase Dropcam for $555 million in cash.
Late last month, it was reported that the smart thermostat and smoke detector maker was planning to enter the home security market by acquiring the popular connected-camera startup. Now, it turns out that the deal has been signed, with the San Francisco-based Dropcam team planning to move to Nest's Palo Alto offices.
Re/code has the story:
Nest itself was just purchased by Google just four months ago for $3.2 billion. But the company says it is undertaking this acquisition on its own, outside of Google. Dropcam will be folded into Nest’s brand and company culture, and will also be subject to its privacy policy, Matt Rogers, Nest co-founder and VP of engineering, told Re/code in an interview Friday.Dropcam offers a cloud-based Wi-Fi video monitoring service that allows users to “drop” into their live-monitored places and receive alerts using its Web and mobile apps, including an official one for iOS. Rogers addressed people's privacy concerns about the idea of a company owned by Google acquiring a home surveillance company in a new blog post. "Like Nest customer data, Dropcam will come under Nest’s privacy policy, which explains that data won’t be shared with anyone (including Google) without a customer’s permission," he said. "Nest has a paid-for business model and ads are not part of our strategy. In acquiring Dropcam, we’ll apply that same policy to Dropcam too."
