This year has been the battle of smart homes among big internet firms. Google bought Nest for $3.2 billion, while Apple announced Homekit at its WWDC conference in June, an SDK that aggregates third party Internet of Things apps into one place. Now Samsung is also planning to enter the battle, as TechCrunch reports that the Korean company is in talks to buy home automation firm SmartThings for around $200 million. SmartThings lets users set up their home devices to be controlled via a mobile app, and has already raised $15 million from investors including Greylock Partners.
Google has Nest, Apple has HomeKit and Samsung has…SmartThings, we’re hearing. The deal was completed for around $200 million dollars, though it might have been less according to one source. SmartThings is in the home automation space, and allows you to connect devices like lights and doorlocks to a system controlled by your mobile phone. It has raised over $15 millionfrom investors including Greylock, Highland Capital, First Round Capital, SV Angel, Lerer Ventures, Yuri Milner’s Start Fund, David Tisch, A-Grade Investments, CrunchFund* and Box Group. Samsung most likely bought the startup to get out ahead of Google’s Nest efforts. With this buy, Samsung obtains a mature home automation platform that just needs some marketing help. And Samsung has a hefty marketing budget. The larger arena at work here is the millions of connected devices that will populate our world — commonly referred to as the internet of things. In a nearly inevitable future where every device in our home has a live connection to the web, and can be controlled by our devices, device manufacturers are the ones most uniquely poised to offer holistic solutions to consumers.
