Smart Home – Page 4

Toronto-based smart home device company Ecobee will be acquired by U.S.-based Generac Holdings for $770 million USD (roughly $952 million CAD), as first reported by BetaKit.

Generac will reportedly pay $200 million (about $245 million CAD) in cash and $450 million (roughly $556 million CAD) in common stock to Ecobee’s equity holders. Generac Holdings is known for creating home generators.

Ecobee, founded in 2007, is best known for its several smart home thermostats, though recently, the company released a smart home camera. It also sells an Alexa and Siri-enabled version of its SmartThermostat. For Apple-powered Siri voice activation, a HomePod mini is required.

According to BetaKit, Ecobee says its devices are used in more than two million homes across North America, and the company currently has over 500 employees globally.

“Generac’s evolution into an energy technology solutions company creates many opportunities to integrate our ecobee products with their residential device offerings, enabling direct monitoring and control of a significant portion of the home’s electrical load,” said Stuart Lombard, founder and chief executive officer of ecobee, in a press release.

In a smart home industry full of massive players like Google, Amazon and Apple, Ecobee remained one of the few independent hardware manufacturers in the space. It’s currently unclear how this acquisition will affect Ecobee moving forward.

For more on the acquisition, check out BetaKit’s extensive coverage.

Source: BetaKit

Amazon might be producing its own “smart fridge,” according to Insider.

Codenamed “Project Pulse,” the appliance will use cameras and computer vision to track inventory and purchase habits, analyze this data and deliver products based on what it thinks you need.

Per Insider, the fridge can also track expiration dates and suggest recipes based on what’s in your fridge. Since Amazon owns Whole Foods and the U.S.-only Amazon Fresh, Insider says Pulse might even feature some sort of seamless way to order through these venues.

The smart fridge has been in development for about two years, according to Insider. Gopi Prashanth, Amazon’s director of computer and artificial intelligence, is said to be overseeing production. It will apparently use the same tech that powers Amazon’s self-serve ‘Go’ stores, which are currently only available in select U.S. cities.

While this would be Amazon’s first smart home product, it makes a lot of sense. Naturally, it has the potential to bolster the company’s e-commerce business by encouraging people to order from its website or even its other brands. It would also expand the company’s smart home offerings, which include Alexa-powered smart speakers like the Echo.

Insider says Amazon will likely work with other manufacturers on the fridge. Specific partners weren’t mentioned, but it could, in theory, take after Samsung and LG’s respective smart fridges.

Of course, the presence of cameras and other tracking technology raises questions about privacy. Specifically, there may be some people who aren’t comfortable with a fridge so closely monitoring what they’re eating and even making food choices for them.

Ultimately, though, we’ll have to wait and see from Amazon itself. The e-commerce giant declined to comment to The Verge, so it remains to be seen when — or even if — Project Pulse will even be unveiled.

For now, we’ll have to make do with Amazon’s ‘WALL-E.’

Source: Insider