The ecommerce giant Amazon seemingly wants to run every aspect of the modern home, and with increasing business aggression. From your doorstep to your groceries, from your home electronics to your game and movie streaming, Amazon wants to run it all.
Today, the company added to its list of recent acquisitions by reportedly acquiring the ‘smart’ doorbell company Ring. The company’s high tech doorbells feature a security camera, are connected to the internet, and are the highest selling devices in its class on the market. While the specifics of the deal were not announced to the public, Reuters has reported that the deal is estimated to be worth over $1 billion, making it one of Amazon’s largest acquisitions, although pale in comparison to the $14 billion the company dished out for Whole Foods last year.
Even before the acquisition, Amazon had already invested pretty heavily into Ring’s doorbell products via its Alexa Fund, the venture capital division of the company which helps invest in technologies that potentially could be applied to the Amazon Echo and its AI interface, Alexa.
The giant also purchased wire-free home security camera developing company Blink in December, giving early indications that Amazon intends to divest many resources and focus its attention on home security in the coming years.
Amazon also currently has a separate but similar service, named Amazon Key, that serves as a package security system. A ‘smart’ doorlock records entrances and allows Amazon deliveries to be dropped off inside customers’ homes rather than being left out on the porch. At this time it is unknown exactly how Amazon plans to incorporate Ring’s technology with its own, but the two will likely work beneficially with one another as Amazon continues to make more pushes into consumer’s homes.
Ring’s spokesperson released a statement confirming the deal, saying, “We’ll be able to achieve even more by partnering with an inventive, customer-centric company like Amazon. We look forward to being a part of the Amazon team as we work toward our vision for safer neighborhoods.”
