Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), through its Nest division, may be looking to expand to the home-security industry as it has reportedly considered acquiring Dropcam. According The Squawk Alley team at CNBC, The Information reports several sources “close to Google” saying that Nest thought of acquiring the connected camera manufacturer to hasten their expansion beyond smart thermostats and smoke alarms.
Jon Steinberg, Buzzfeed president and COO and CNBC contributor, said that buying Dropcam, which has so far raised $47.8 million after a $30-million Series C funding round in July last year, would be sensible for Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
“It makes sense that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has to do this. People do not think of Google right now beyond Nest as a company that makes embedded systems for hardware for a smart home. Them making this acquisition, showing it works great with Android, that gives a whole another kind of realm of hardware (and gives) people the idea to use Android in their systems like this,” he said.
It has to be noted, however, that no news organization, including The Information, has confirmed the status of talks between Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Dropcam, if such talks exist.
The company that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) might eye for acquiring, Dropcam makes $130 Internet-connected cameras that save their footage to the cloud. These cameras allow their users to check the recordings anywhere at any time and also provide an alert system that sends out notifications when movement in a secured area is detected. For a fee, Dropcam will also store footage a week at a time and lets users save these clips from the cloud.
Steinberg goes on to say that if he were asked, the home would be fourth on the list of ecosystems that need more focus from companies. He ranks mobile, desktop, and the car ecosystems as more important priorities. The Squawk Alley’s Kayla Tausche pointed out that people may need to do things in their home, while they are someplace else, but Steinberg said that he has never felt it was that big of a problem to need to turn his lights and air conditioning on after he arrives home.
Meanwhile, Tausche questioned whether Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) being “a company that mines information about its users and uses that essentially to turn around and sell advertising” should cause a big concern and dissuade people from buying a Dropcam. Steinberg also said that Google Login is a very secure system with two-factor authentication, which would potentially make Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s users more comfortable using their Google identities to login to home automation systems.
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