Google's Nest Buys Home-Monitoring Startup for $555 Million

Jun 21, 2014 11:39 AM EDT | Jordan Ecarma

Google's Nest has agreed to a $555 million deal to acquire Dropcam, a startup that focuses on home monitoring systems.

The move is part of Nest's goal to become the lead operating system for connected home devices in the growing Internet of things market.

"There's a lot of alignment between the teams in terms of building products for the home--our product offerings are very complementary," Nest co-founder Matt Rogers told The Wall Street Journal.

Nest, which makes smart thermostats and smoke detectors, was purchased by Google in January, an acquisition that made privacy advocates uneasy. The Mountain View, Calif.-based tech giant has maintained that Nest will stay a separate company and user data will be safe.

The smart thermostat maker will pay $555 million in cash for Dropcam, Reuters reported via Re/code.

Dropcam's wireless video-monitoring system sends a live feed to a connected device with a companion app. This latest acquisition will probably raise questions about user privacy since Nest is owned by Google.

Any data from Dropcam will be held to Nest's privacy policy and won't be shared with outside companies, including Google, Rogers told WSJ. Neither of the services plan to sell advertisements, he said.

Dropcam is marketed as a home-security system and sends alerts to users based on activity picked up by its cameras; however, it does offer a feature to share video streams with friends or make them public.

The startup plans to grow with movement sensors that tell users when doors open and close, investor David Cowan, a venture capitalist with Bessemer Venture Partners, told WSJ.

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