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Samsung has reportedly paid $200 million for the two-year-old company SmartThings, in a bid to expand into the Internet of Things market.
Although some of Samsung’s products have the ability to communicate with each other, by acquiring the home automation company, the firm will be able to expand its reach.
SmartThings currently sells motion sensors, a hub, a plug in power control unit, as well as other pieces of hardware that can control features within a home via an app.
Alex Hawkinson, CEO of Smart Things, will continue to run the company. He said in a blog post: “Joining forces with Samsung will enable us to support all of the leading smartphone vendors, and help many more people around the world easily control and monitor their homes using SmartThings.
“We believe that there is an enormous opportunity to leverage Samsung’s global scale to help us realise our long-term vision.”
SmartThings, which began as a Kickstarter project, will continue to act as an independent company under Samsung’s Open Innovation Center in Palo Alto.
