Live data from Hacker News

Google to Acquire Nest

investor.google.com

51–60 of 590 posts

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#52
post #39
post #7

"Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to buy Nest Labs, Inc. for $3.2 billion in cash." Can that be right? $3.2 billion? That's a crazy huge sum.

They have paying customers. It matters.

And the realistic potential to be in every home around the world.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#56
post #7

"Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to buy Nest Labs, Inc. for $3.2 billion in cash." Can that be right? $3.2 billion? That's a crazy huge sum.

There were articles a week ago about them raising $150 million in a new round of funding, with a valuation of $2-3 billion. So this isn't out of nowhere. Also, they raised $80 million a year ago, at a valuation of $800 million. (Incidentally, Google Ventures led that funding round, so at least some of this purchase price is just Google moving money around internally.)

http://gigaom.com/2014/01/02/why-nest-might-need-another-hug...

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#57
post #12

The cynic in me shudders at the possibility of Google adding even more real-world data like temperature preference and lifestyle factors to their massive data portfolio. The idealist in me is incredibly excited at the possibility of Nest's fundamental strengths being bolstered by Google's coffers.

Am I the only one that doesn't get chills up their spine whenever Google breaks into some new market? I see very little possible misuse of temperature preference (of all things...) and very great possible gains. The more intimately a service knows you, the more personalized and relevant data it can bring. And another thing, I am really sick and tired of tempering or being told to temper my enthusiasm for some new tec…

> I see very little possible misuse of temperature preference (of all things...) and very great possible gains.

That's where the problem lies: the greatest gains should come from features/sensors/products not yet introduced. Of course temperature preference is a very weak data point for privacy, but I can think of a few invasive things a future device could have. I don't know if that's actually possible with a device in that price point, but if a thermostat could know who is in a room, there's a lot of good/evil that could be done with that data.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#58
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

connected devices

Do they have anything else other than the thermostat and smoke detector?

They monitor for presence. Combine the phone's attempt at geolocation with motion detectors or whatever to make even finer grained geolocation.

So if your phone geolocates to the frozen north, and the thermostat indicates the furnace is working extra hard, expect to see warm vacation destination ads in your desktop web browser at work, or something like that.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#59
post #27

Oh come on this has to stop. How much would it have cost Google to build Nest from scratch? Not 3.2 billion dollars.

It's not the tech, it's the install/customer base.

Would it really take $3.2b to engineer a product similar to Nest and market it to an even wider audience? I'm happy for Nest guys, but the number is a bit ridiculous.

Re: Google to Acquire Nest

#60
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google always shuts stuff down. Which is just a big laugh when its an internet application, but not so funny when its your thermostat. Anyone know what happens when GOOG shuts off the Nest system? Hopefully the thermostat reverts to at least a simple dumb mode rather than shutting everything off?

I doubt Google would shut down a $3,200,000,000.00 acquisition.

Please don't include decimals on that kind of number, it's intellectually dishonest.
Post reply on HN