Electronics giant Samsung has signaled its intentions to become a major player in the nascent Internet of Things (IoT) market by deciding to acquire he Washington, United States of America-located startup SmartThings.
Though either party refused to divulge the cost of acquisition, online reports suggested Samsung has made a US$200 million offer (about £116m)though there’s of confirmation of this.
The two-year-old SmartThings sells smart home kits which work around a central Wi Fi hub, allowing users to control various household appliances.
Making the announcement on its Website, SmartThings said: It has always been our goal to create a totally open smart home platform that brings together third-party developers, device makers, and consumers. We’re thrilled that Samsung fully supports this vision.
We will continue to run SmartThings the way we always have: by embracing our community of customers, developers, and device makers and championing the creation of the leading open platform for the smart home. Our growing team will remain fully intact and will relocate to a new headquarters in Palo Alto, CA. In short: SmartThings will remain SmartThings.
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.
Current Chief Executive Officer Alex Hawkinson will continue as chief of SmartThings, though the company’s headquarters will move from Washington, D.C., to OIC’s base in Palo Alto, California, and more than half of SmartThing’s 54 employees, plus Hawkinson, will move to California.
Image Credit: SmartThings
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