Google snaps up connected home company Nest for $3.2B

Google announced Monday afternoon that it will acquire Nest, the manufacturer of re-imagined thermostats and other connected home gear, in a cash deal worth $3.2 billion.

Google will retain the Nest brand as-is, and it's likely that the search giant will be planning to integrate its large and growing framework of services into Nest gear, taking Google into the home in a more intimate manner than ever before.

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In statement posted to Nest's official blog, founder and engineering vice president Matt Rogers declined to get into the specifics of any future integration, however.

"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," he wrote.

Rogers' co-founder and CEO, Tony Fadell, said that Google's scale makes it an exciting new partner.

"Google has the business resources, global scale and platform reach to accelerate Nest growth across hardware, software and services for the home globally," he said. "And our company visions are well aligned we both believe in letting technology do the hard work behind the scenes so people can get on with the things that matter in life."

Nest stopped short of explicitly confirming that its privacy policy would not change, though the company pledged that "we've always taken privacy seriously and this will not change" in its statement.

The Nest Thermostat is the company's best known product, a heavily digitized unit that features a high degree of automation, slick design and the ability to be programmed and operated remotely via a web app, iOS or Android. Nest also makes a combined smoke and carbon monoxide detector that eliminates the dreaded low-battery chirp and is designed not to immediately go off from cooking smoke, among other handy features.

Email Jon Gold at jgold@nww.com and follow him on Twitter at @NWWJonGold.

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