Koreans get serious about home automationTech war moves from mobiles to the living room with Samsung snapping up SmartThings, it has been confirmed.
The smart home platform will operate as an independent company within Samsung’s Open Innovation Center group.
Rumours of the deal first emerged last month, although the value was not disclosed is said to be worth US$200 million.
SmartThings app turns a smartphone or tablet into a controller of all smart devices at home including appliances, tablets, lights and switches, doors and locks.
It also makes low cost multi-sensors, smart hubs, ‘sump pumps’ and ‘Know Who’s Home When You’re Not’ monitoring solution via its online store.
CEO Alex Hawkinson said “today is a big day for SmartThings.”
It is an “enormous opportunity to leverage Samsung’s global scale” and bring SmartThings global, he wrote on the company blog.
It has always been our goal to create a totally open smart home platform that brings together third-party developers, device makers, and consumers, he said. “We’re thrilled that Samsung fully supports this vision.”
The deal will enable SmartThings to support all smartphone vendors, devices, and applications; expand our base of developers and customers.
The team will remain intact but will relocate to a new headquarters in Palo Alto, California from Washington DC,
“SmartThings will remain SmartThings,” Hawkinson says.
It was founded as a Kickstarter project in 2012.
The move also makes sense for Samsung as one of the largest manufacturers of home appliances.
Home automation is tipped as the next big thing with Google’s $3.2 billion purchase of Nest which makes connected devices like smoke alarms and thermostats, and also recently acquired DropCam home monitoring system.
Telsyte predicts $160 million smart home automation devices will be sold in Oz this year and is expected to grow to just under $1 billion by 2017.
