A month after it first emerged that Google was looking to enter the home security market, and was eyeing the video monitoring company Dropcam, Google-owned Nest on Friday announced that it's acquiring the San Francisco-based startup.
"I think our customers will agree. Many of you already own Dropcam products and have asked if we could make them work with Nest. Today, we're one step closer to making that happen", Nest said in a blog post.
Addressing privacy concerns, Matt Rogers, Nest co-founder and VP of engineering, said that the startup will come under Nest's privacy policy, which means that data won't be shared with anyone (including Google) without a customer's permission.
Dropcam was founded in 2009 by software engineers Greg Duffy and Aamir Virani. The company, which started out as a way to identify the person who was letting their dog poop on Duffy's father's yard, now develops a $150 camera that connects to your home's WiFi network and streams footage to mobile devices or a computer.
The home security firm recently released a software update that allows its camera software to tell the difference between humans and pets. Its next big project is a hardware product dubbed Dropcam Tabs, which are small Bluetooth-enabled sensors that can be stuck on doors, windows, and other objects within the house to detect movement in areas that can't be seen by Dropcam's wide lens.
"Our products and technologies are a natural fit and by joining up with Nest we can fully realize our vision", Dropcam said in a blog post.
Although the financial details of the deal weren't announced, according to Recode, the deal, which was signed Friday and has yet to close, is worth $555 million in cash.