This Tweet Perfectly Explains How The Valley Feels About Dropcam's Acquisition
Dropcam
Nest Labs announced late Friday that it was buying Dropcam for $555 million.
It wasn't all that long ago, in January, that Google bought Nest for $3.2 billion.
To be sure, this deal is much smaller, but half a billion dollars isn't chump change, even by Silicon Valley's standards. That's especially so for a company launched in 2009 and run by a 27-year-old CEO, Greg Duffy, with around 77 employees, according to Dropcam's LinkedIn profile.
The news spread fast on Twitter, with lots of comments questioning why Google wants these two companies that make devices for people's homes. Nest makes a programmable thermostat. Dropcam offers a webcam for video surveillance, along with a cloud where people can store the videos. It's especially popular with moms, used as baby cams.
Will Google be tracking these devices, gathering data like they do with their other products? Answer, no, because Nest doesn't sell ads and Dropcam will be run by Nest, Nest co-founder Matt Rogers explained in a blog post. Or at least, not unless you choose to one-day share the info.
"Dropcam will come under Nest's privacy policy, which explains that data won't be shared with anyone (including Google) without a customer's permission."
After hearing the news Ashley Mayer, head of PR for Box, sent this tweet that perfectly encapsulates what many in the Valley are feeling:
Google buys Nest buys Dropcam. pic.twitter.com/t3hilsZmaz
- Ashley Mayer (@ashleymayer) June 21, 2014
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