LG Homey

LG Buys Smart Home Company Responsible For Homey

LG has acquired an 80% stake in Dutch company Athom. The company is best known for its Homey smart platform which kind of gives us an idea of what LG plans to do with it. LG says it plans to purchase the remaining 20% of Homey within the next three years. However, in the time being the company can start working with the brand to help expand LG’s smart home ecosystem.

LG has kind of fallen short when it comes to its smart home ecosystem. Compared to the obvious competitor, Samsung and its SmartThings platform, LG’s ThinkQ Smart Home platform isn’t as expansive. LG hopes Homey will change that.

Homey says with the help of the ThinQ platform and the company’s existing tools, users will soon be able to control ThinQ-enabled LG appliances through the app. It will unlock more connectivity across products. Homey currently offers over 50,000 different devices across its platform. Homey also support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Matter and Thread.

The biggest push for this acquisition is for LG to incorporate non-LG products on the platform. Similar to how SmartThings lets users control non-Samsung products such as Nanoleaf lights and competitor tech, LG wants to do the same. At the moment, ThinQ is strictly an LG system. This worked back in 2015 but given how expansive smart home is now, LG needs to open up to competitor brands.

Samsung acquired SmartThings back in 2014 for $200 million and the brand has been a cornerstone piece when it comes to its smart home tech and third-party devices. LG wants this Homey acquisition to do the same thing.

In a statement, Atom says the company will continue as is for now with Homey dedicated to developing Homey Cloud and Homey Pro.

“Homey will continue as it is, with Athom remaining committed to developing Homey Cloud and Homey Pro, and keep working on an ever-expanding lineup of new products. Both the founders, Emile Nijssen & Stefan Witkamp, will stay on as executives of Athom, and continue to execute their vision and create a better smart home for everyone.”

The total cost of this acquisition hasn’t been made public yet. However, the Korean Economic Daily reports it likely cost LG around $61 million.

Source: Homey

Marco is the owner and founder of GLITCHED. South Africa’s largest gaming and pop culture website. GLITCHED quickly established itself with tech and gaming enthusiasts with on-point opinions, quick coverage of breaking events and unbiased reviews across its website, social platforms, and YouTube channel.

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