Nest, the intelligent thermostat and smoke alarm company owned by Google, has announced that it is acquiring home security firm Dropcam in a deal worth $555 million. Dropcam has been in the video monitoring market for five years, with one of its chief selling points being sophisticated features such as cloud integration.
It's unclear how Nest intends to leverage the purchase but cofounder and head of engineering Matt Rogers said that "[e]ventually, 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."
Unsurprisingly, there is already concern about what will become of customers' video data. Nest has insisted that Google will not have access to it, though we wouldn't blame you for being suspicious.
[via The Verge]
