Forbes: Google’s Nest Close to Partnering With ADT
The companies are working to connect Nest’s thermostat and smoke/carbon monoxide alarm with ADT’s Pulse system.
Google's Nest is in talks with ADT to potentially ramp up its presence in home security services, according to Forbes.
BOCA RATON, Fla. – Google’s Nest is in talks with ADT to potentially ramp up its presence in home security services, according to Forbes.
The two companies are working to connect Nest’s Internet-connected home products – a thermostat as well as a smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) alarm – with ADT’s Pulse system that allows its customers to control their security system through a mobile app.
“We’ve had discussions with Fadell and his team,” ADT CEO Naren Gursahaney told Forbes, referring to Nest’s cofounder and CEO, Tony Fadell. “We’ve had discussions with Nest in integrating their thermostat with the Pulse platform.”
Forbes postulates the flurry of do-it-yourself (DIY) home security products coming out of the tech industry could start hurting ADT’s bottom line, and ADT is fighting slowing customer growth. In addition to Pulse, ADT started a partnership with IFTTT – If This Then That, a service that allows users to chain Web site and devices – to hook up with other connected hardware such as Jawbone’s fitness trackers and the Philips Hue LED bulb in the cloud. But with a $6.1 billion market cap and seven million customers, it’s got some time before these smaller players start making serious dents, Forbes reports.
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Nest was acquired by Google in January for $3.2 billion. Nest then followed up with its own acquisition of Internet-connected security camera-maker Dropcam for $555 million. Dropcam was even pitched as a product to bring the end of home security giants like ADT when it started in 2009, Forbes reports.
One hole the ADT partnership could help plug up for any Nest security system is a home security monitoring service. Dropcam already has a premium service for storing video feeds in the cloud, but the professional monitoring that ADT has could be added as a more expensive premium package.
“What they love is ADT’s seven million customers, 4,000 sales representatives and the relationships we have with fire departments and other emergency services, so that when there is an alarm we can dispatch the right people,” Gursahaney told Forbes.
A premium monitoring service could fit in well with Nest products. Before Nest officially announced its Protect smoke and CO alarm product last year, Forbes reported that a subscription monitoring service was being considered although it is yet to materialize. An ADT partnership could help with its massive call center infrastructure.
“We don’t have anything to share on the topic at this time,” Nest spokeswoman Zoz Cuccias said in an E-mail to Forbes.
An allegiance with ADT would not be Nest’s first product partnership. Since June, the company has been running its “Work with Nest” program, a developer program for connecting its products up with other Internet-connected hardware, Forbes reports. So far, partners include Mercedes Benz, Jawbone, Whirlpool, among others. The Mercedes integration, for example, allows your Mercedes car to talk to the Nest thermostat to make sure your home is at a comfortable temperature by the time you arrive there.
Forbes reported Gursahaney gave no timeline for when this partnership with Nest will come to fruition or what it will ultimately look like.
“These things take time,” he said. “We’re working feverishly to develop the partnership.”
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