Following weeks of speculation, connected home security platform provider Icontrol Networks on Thursday confirmed it is being acquired by Comcast and Alarm.com. Comcast is buying the Austin, Texas-based company’s “Converge” software platform, which it currently uses to power its Xfinity Home touchscreen panel and back-end servers; while Alarm.com will acquire Icontrol’s Connect and Piper business units.
Comcast says it plans to strategically invest in Icontrol’s technology and employees as part of an effort to deliver new features, products and services to both Xfinity Home and enterprise-level Converge customers. Additionally, Icontrol’s employees in Austin will become part of a new engineering center of excellence being opened by Comcast in the city. That team will work closely with the cable giant’s engineers in Philadelphia and Silicon Valley to build connected home security products for their customers.
According to Comcast Spokesman Charlie Douglas, there were three reasons why Comcast decided to acquire Icontrol. First, because the company has worked closely with Icontrol since the inception of Xfinity Home, he says bringing the company in-house will enable them to “control their own destiny” in the smart home market and enable them to invest in and fully control the product roadmap moving forward. Secondly, the deal will supplement Comcast’s engineering talent pool with Icontrol’s employees. Finally, by continuing to provide the Converge platform to other service providers, the acquisition will open a new line of business for the company.
“We’ve been at the smart home business going on five years now and we have come out with a number of different strategies for growing out new consumer products and experiences,” Douglas says. “Last year, we announced our ‘Works with Xfinity Home’ partner program and we have currently integrated four partners into that, including Nest, Lutron, Chamberlain and August Home. One strategy that we have going forward is getting more top-quality partners. Icontrol is really at the core suite of our key functionality and, as the marketplace evolves, we want to be there leading the way and adapting to where consumers are gravitating so we can offer them a great experience.”
In a statement, Alarm.com President and CEO Steve Trundle said the acquisition of Connect and Piper — which the company is paying approximately $140 million for — would enhance the company’s R&D efforts. “This acquisition will enhance our research and development scale so that we can continue to deliver long-term value to our partners through innovative technology,” Trundle said. “We look forward to welcoming the Icontrol team and to building upon the solid relationships within their customer base.”
Connect, based in Redwood City, Calif., provides an interactive security and home automation platform that powers several service providers’ solutions including ADT Pulse with over 1.6 million subscribers. Piper, based in Ottawa, Canada, designs, produces and sells a Wi-Fi-enabled video and home automation hub.
Jay Kenny, Alarm.com's vice president of marketing, says the acquisition reaffirms their belief that security dealers are in a strong position to continue to bring smart home technology to market.
"As our market continues to evolve, we believe that reliable technology combined with an exceptional customer service experience is the right recipe for success," Kenny says. "Additional engineering resources and a corporate footprint in Silicon Valley will help us accelerate innovation and help ensure that our dealers remain competitive well into the future."
Comcast also believes the acquisition will be a boon to its R&D efforts, as engineers at the new office in Austin will be working to develop an array of new products designed to address the needs of security and the broader smart home market in general. “They’ve got years of experience and there is quite a great brain trust and talent pool there, so we are excited to roll up our sleeves and develop a robust roadmap where we’ve got great consumer experiences that will come forth as a result of their creativity and innovation,” Douglas says.
While news of this deal may be a bit unnerving to other cable and telcos who use Icontrol as the backbone of their home automation offerings, Douglas says Comcast intends to continue providing the same products and services to those customers. “Icontrol currently serves a number of cable companies and we will continue to provide products and services for them — namely Rogers in Canada, Cox here in the United States and Charter, which just acquired two other Icontrol customers in Time Warner and Bright House,” Douglas says. “We will continue to offer them a suite of products and we’re hopeful they are as excited as we are. Now that we have Icontrol as part of our own technology portfolio, we are committed to continuing to invest and create great new customer experiences that we will of course want to offer to all of them and their customers.”
Douglas adds that continuing to develop and bring to market smart home products and services is one of their biggest efforts outside the company’s traditional “triple play” of phone, television and Internet services; and they see a lot opportunities to integrate Xfinity Home into their other offerings. “For example, our X1 video platform is really beautiful and the one of the innovations for it is we have a voice remote so you can pick up your remote and say, ‘I want to watch ESPN SportsCenter,’ and it will go to it,” he explains. “You can find movies, you can search by actor, theme, and you can use this voice functionality as a way to search and find content. Likewise, we see further opportunity to integrate Xfintiy Home into that experience.
“Imagine you’re at home watching a movie and it’s getting too hot, you could pick up your voice remote and say, ‘Xfinity Home turn the temperature to 66 degrees’ and then your A/C will kick in,” Douglas concludes.
