Google Pays $3.2 Billion for Nest Labs

choi

Rolfe Winkler and Daisuke Wakabayashi, Google Pays $3.2 Billion for Nest Labs. Wall Street Journal, Jan 14, 2014.
stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-426244/

Quote:

"The deal would be Google’s second largest, behind its 2012 acquisition of cellphone maker Motorola Mobility [for $12.5 billion]

"The deal also gives Google a high-profile technology executive in Tony Fadell, a former Apple Inc employee who is Nest’s co-founder and chief executive. Mr Fadell, who helped develop the iPod, will continue to run Nest and report to Mr [Google CEO Larry] Page. Mr Fadell started Nest in 2010 with Matt Rogers, another former Apple engineer.

"The company’s first product, introduced in late 2011, was a hockey-puck-shaped thermostat that programs itself based on how a user changes the temperature. It can also detect, using sensors, when there is no one in the home to lower energy use. * * * Little is known about Nest’s finances. In an interview with Forbes last month, Mr Fadell said the thermostat was in 'almost 1% of US homes,' suggesting that the device had made its way into more than one million homes.

"Last year, it introduced a second product, the Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector.

My comment:
(a) Next Labs is based in Palo Alto, California.
(b) Last year news broke out about its smoke and CO2 detector (two in one). basically its products are digital and connects to Internet. I was puzzled by the fuss, went to its website to view the two products, and concluded few consumers would buy either, mainly because what we have at home work perfectly fine and are MUCH cheaper. I stand by my assessment: Next Labs is not worth it.
(c) There is no need to read the rest of the report.