The Thermostat Market is Heating Up: Google Snags Nest for $3.2 Billion in Cash

Last month, we posted that Google had been in the development stages of designing its own “smart thermostat”, despite suffering a failed attempt at an online service a couple of years earlier. Well, as has now been proven, Google certainly is taking this market seriously, but it figured that it might as well snatch up those who are doing it best: Nest.

And so Google did that, for $3.2 billion. Nest’s Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers will join Google as a result. Given the current momentum of the company, it would appear that Google picked Nest up at an ideal time. The company recently released its “Nest Protect”, a smoke detector / carbon monoxide detector that, as has become a common theme with Nest’s products, can alert you to problems regardless of where you are.

As part of the deal, Nest will continue on with its own brand identity, rather than be rebranded to something like Google Nest, which I think is the smart way to go. Regarding the deal, Fadell considers it to be an important one:

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

The deal didn’t happen overnight. Google’s expressed keen interest before the original product launched, and ever since, it has helped with funding. With the momentum, it seems there was little doubt that the company should just be snapped-up in its entirety (a deal that’s not final until the a-OK is given on the regulatory approval, which seems like a non-issue).

This is one market that’s going to be well-worth watching.