Skip to main content

Google purchases Nest for $3.2 billion

Google purchases Nest for $3.2 billion

/

The Nest brand will live on under Tony Fadell's leadership

Share this story

nest
nest

Google has just purchased Nest Labs, the maker of the Nest Learning Thermostat and Protect smoke detector, for $3.2 billion in cash. According to a Google press release, Nest will continue to operate independently, co-founder and CEO Tony Fadell tells us; co-founder Matt Rogers will also make the move to Google. While the transaction is subject to the usual regulatory review, Google says it expects the sale to close within the next few months. Google Ventures had already invested tens of millions of dollars in Nest, so the company has been on Mountain View's radar for some time now.

It's not yet clear exactly how Google plans to use Nest, but the company obviously sees it as an important part of its future. A combination of Nest's home solutions coupled with Google's language recognition could give Google its strongest path yet into your home. "Google will help us fully realize our vision of the conscious home and allow us to change the world faster than we ever could if we continued to go it alone," writes Fadell on the Nest blog. "We've had great momentum, but this is a rocket ship."

Interview with Nest co-founder Matt Rogers at CES 2014.

Nest has published a Q&A with Rogers that reveals some detail on how this new partnership will change things with the company. For starters, Nest confirms that it'll continue to support Apple and iOS products going forward — not a huge surprise, given that Google's been putting out solid versions of its apps and services for iOS for some time now. Warranties will stay the same, and Nest products will still continue to be sold at retail (though there's no word on whether or not they'll be on sale at Apple stores).

"We've had great momentum, but this is a rocket ship."

Unsurprisingly, the company is remaining coy about how it'll integrate with Google's existing product lineup. "Nest's product line obviously caught the attention of Google and I'm betting that there's a lot of cool stuff we could do together, but nothing to share today," writes Rogers. He did address any potential concerns about Nest's customer data being opened up to Google for advertising or other purposes. "Our privacy policy clearly limits the use of customer information to providing and improving Nest's products and services," writes Rogers. "We've always taken privacy seriously and this will not change."

Google CEO Larry Page said the following in a statement:

Nest’s founders, Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, have built a tremendous team that we are excited to welcome into the Google family. They’re already delivering amazing products you can buy right now--thermostats that save energy and smoke/CO alarms that can help keep your family safe. We are excited to bring great experiences to more homes in more countries and fulfill their dreams!Nest CEO Tony Fadell's statement on the purchase:

We’re thrilled to join Google. With their support, Nest will be even better placed to build simple, thoughtful devices that make life easier at home, and that have a positive impact on the world."