Google’s Nest has acquired Dropcam, a home monitoring camera start-up, in a deal of $555 million in cash, in an effort to expand its brand into home security and video monitoring front. Rumours about the acquisition first surfaced last month.
Nest and Dropcam have announced the acquisition in separate blog posts on Friday confirming that Dropcam will continue to serve customers and the products will be sold like before. However, the companies have stopped short of promising new products from Dropcam.
“I think our customers will agree. Many of you already own Dropcam products and have asked if we could make them work with Nest. Today, we’re one step closer to making that happen,” said Matt Rogers is Nest’s founder and head of Engineering, in the blog post.
“Eventually, the plan is for us to work together to reinvent products that will help shape the future of the conscious home and bring our shared vision to more and more people around the world. For now though, not much will change.”
“Nest and Dropcam are kindred spirits. Both were born out of frustration with outdated, complicated products that do the opposite of making life better. After numerous conversations with Nest Founders Tony and Matt, it was clear that we shared a similar vision,” said Greg Duffy, CEO in a blog post.
“Dropcam’s next chapter will be as part of the Nest family. You’ll be amazed at what we can do together. We can’t wait to start.”
San Francisco Dropcam, founded in the year 2009, is one of the top selling security cameras on Amazon and has recently branched into retail store sales like Apple and Best Buy.
Back in January, Google acquired Nest, founded in 2010 by Apple executive Tony Fadell and Apple colleague Matt Rogers, for $3.2 billion, after which the 130 employees figure ballooned to more than 460.
When the deal closes, Dropcam will integrate with Nest products, with the employees relocating from the San Francisco office to Palo Alto, California office. Nest will take over Dropcam’s customer support and promised that users’ data sharing will also be under Nest’s privacy policy.
