Samsung Snaps Up Smart-Home Startup SmartThingsThe deal reportedly closed for about $200 million.
ByJason Fell•
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Another smart-home startup has been gobbled up by a tech giant. This time, it wasn't Google doing the gobbling.
Washington D.C.-based SmartThings has agreed to be purchased by South Korea's Samsung. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though reportspeg the deal at $200 million.
As part of the deal, SmartThings will continue to operate as an independent company within Samsung. Its employees are expected to relocate to a new company headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.
Rumors of the acquisitionfirst leaked last month.
Founded in 2012, SmartThings created a mobile app that essentially allows people to control and monitor various Internet-connected appliances within their homest. The company says its open platformsupports more than 1,000 devices and 8,000 appscreated by a community of device makers, inventors and developers.
Related:The Internet of Things May See Huge Growth, So Companies Want in Now
Prior to the acquisition, SmartThing had raised $15.5 million in venture capital from investors including Greylock Partners, Highland Capital Partners and Lerer Ventures, among others.
"We believe that there is an enormous opportunity to leverage Samsung's global scale to help us realize our long-term vision," SmartThings founder and CEO Alex Hawkinsonsaid in a post在公司的网站上。“虽然我们仍将歌剧tionally 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."
Google has also been hot on acquiring smart-home startups. In January, itbought Nest-- which manufactures smart thermostats and smoke detectors -- for $3.2 billion. Then in June, Google's Nestbought Dropcam, a maker of home-monitoring cameras. That deal was for $555 million in cash.
