Samsung acquires 'smart home' startup SmartThings to take on Apple's HomeKit
Samsung has acquired the home automation startup SmartThings, presumably in a bid to take on Google’s Nest and Apple’s HomeKit in the “smart home” space.
According to TechCrunch, which first reported on the prospect of the acquisition a month ago, the deal was completed for around $200 million.
SmartThings cofounder and CEO Alex Hawkinson confirmed the acquisition in a new blog post, saying that SmartThings will operate as an independent company within Samsung’s Open Innnovation Center group:
We believe that there is an enormous opportunity to leverage Samsung’s global scale to help us realize our long-term vision. While we will remain operationally independent, joining forces with Samsung will enable us to support all of the leading smartphone vendors, devices, and applications; expand our base of developers and enhance the tools and programs that they rely on; and help many more people around the world easily control and monitor their homes using SmartThings.
SmartThings’ official iOS companion app, SmartThings Mobile, is available on the App Store for free. Released in March last year, it was updated in December with a new iOS 7-optimized design, a new “Hello, Home” feature, and a number of improvements to its Dashboard section.
See also: Apple and Samsung likely to dominate the smart watch market, Samsung extends mockery of iPhone-toting ‘wall huggers’ to actual airports, and Apple and Samsung agree to drop all patent lawsuits outside the U.S.