6 ms·

I'm getting old. Wasn't even aware of Nest. However, 5% of Google seems like a large amount of money to acquire a startup. What did I miss?

by qdog 13y ago

cmelbye 13y ago
Beautiful understated home automation designed better than any other company has designed similar products in the past. You should really take a look, I'm surprised that it's possible to not have heard of them before.
- hueving 13y ago
  To clarify, it's a very small part of home automation. Just thermostat and smoke detectors (as of recently). They haven't even branched into locks/lights/etc. I'm really excited to see where they go.
  - ajcarpy2005 13y ago
    They have an nice, recognizable brand name for home automation, anyway: 'nest'
- hnriot 13y ago
  for 99.99% of the population a simple thermostat works just fine. And nearly all of them don't even understand that the temperature setting doesn't actually change the temperature of the air, but rather the duration it remains on. NEST is pretty, but way over engineered for the task. Consumers just don't need it. I'm all for technology and am an early adopter and of course have heard of NEST, seen them etc. Like you say, it's hard to imagine some one here not having done so, but my guess is the commenter has seen them, but just didn't take it in because "home automation" has a long legacy of being utter crap. When you get past the pretty design, there's nothing really to the thing. It's just a massively over engineered pretty consumer device that very few people need. I'm pretty sure Apple didn't buy them because they could just as simply designed their own. I fail to see why the thermostat can't (if Apple were to design it) not have a UI at all but rather just be a little plugin thing, maybe "Thermoport Express" and you use your iPhone to make changes from anywhere, don't even need to get up and look at the device. Any hardware solution quickly looks old. The iPhone (to Apple) is the UI for everything.
  - kashkhan 13y ago
    > the temperature setting doesn't actually change the temperature of the air, I am sorry... yes having a higher temp setting means the heat will on for longer (or ac for less) but it DOES change the temperature of the air. The thermostat measures the temperature and turns the mahcine on and off accordingly.
    - roel_v 13y ago
      Do you honestly not know what his point was?
      - kashkhan 13y ago
        I didn't argue with the rest of his point. That he said that the thermostat changes the time the burner is on is not true. A thermostat is not a timer. Time on is not the controlled variable.
        roel_v 13y ago
        Come on, now you're taking semantic quibbling to farcical levels. Yes it is true that a thermostat is not a timer, nobody claimed that. What it (in it simplest form) does is turn on the burner until the set temperature has been reached. My point was, for any reasonable, non-autistic reader, it was perfectly clear that the GP knows how a thermostat works and that his point was that many people think the thermostat changes the temperature that the burner generates, or at least whatever is output by that burner/installation (be it water or air). Now I don't have an opinion on that matter, but I'm annoyed by your littering of the conversation over a slight sloppiness in expression in a context that doesn't call for the level of correctness you, from your high horse, are calling for.
        kashkhan 13y ago
        > many people think the thermostat changes the temperature that the burner generates, There might be many such people but that is not what he said. I apologize that my comment clashes with your aesthetic preference of what a discussion should look like.
nostromo 13y ago
By market cap, the acquisition cost less than 1% of Google. (Still a very large number.)
- bluthru 13y ago
  Especially since it's cold hard cash, not equity.
nikcub 13y ago
> 5% of Google More like 0.8% - $3.2B purchase on $375B market cap. Or it is around 10% of annual gross profit, or 6% of their cash reserve of $54B.
- Pxtl 13y ago
  ... with that in mind, knowing Google's shortcomings? If I were Google, I'd blow a fat wad of those billions and buy Sony. There's a company that would really fill in a lot of Google's gaps - gaming, consumer hardware beyond the cellphone scale, a big library of media properties to integrate into the Play store. A quick Googling puts Sony's market cap at $18B. A big chunk of Google's cash reserves, but imagine how terrified Microsoft would be of Android-powered PS5s.
  - uptown 13y ago
    "imagine how terrified Microsoft would be of Android-powered PS5s" I'm not sure I agree with this. According to this article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2013/01/20/sell-microsoft-now-game-over-ballmer-loses/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2013/01/20/sell-micr... "Microsoft makes more than 75% of its profits from Windows and Office. Less than 25% comes from its vaunted servers and tools. And Microsoft makes nothing from its xBox/Kinect entertainment division, while losing vast sums in its on-line division (negative $350M-$750M/quarter)." I realize they're trying to position the XBOX One as your home entertainment hub - but the bigger question is whether there's a future for home gaming consoles at all, or whether that functionality will just be folded into your TV, cast from your mobile devices, or handled by some other connected multi-purpose device.
    - Pxtl 13y ago
      ... what's the on-line division? Skydrive and Outlook/Hotmail?
      - efbenson 13y ago
        Bing. This is an older article and they are not losing as much money anymore, but Bing has cost MS a lot of money. http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/20/technology/microsoft_bing/ http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/20/technology/microsoft_bing/
jhonovich 13y ago
Google's market capitalization is ~$375 billion so this would be just under 1% of their valuation.

I'm getting old. Wasn't even aware of Nest. However, 5% of Google seems like a large amount of money to acquire a startup. What did I miss?

by qdog 13y ago

I'm getting old. Wasn't even aware of Nest. However, 5% of Google seems like a large amount of money to acquire a startup. What did I miss?

cmelbye 13y ago

Beautiful understated home automation designed better than any other company has designed similar products in the past. You should really take a look, I'm surprised that it's possible to not have heard of them before.

hueving 13y ago
To clarify, it's a very small part of home automation. Just thermostat and smoke detectors (as of recently). They haven't even branched into locks/lights/etc. I'm really excited to see where they go.
- ajcarpy2005 13y ago
  They have an nice, recognizable brand name for home automation, anyway: 'nest'
hnriot 13y ago
for 99.99% of the population a simple thermostat works just fine. And nearly all of them don't even understand that the temperature setting doesn't actually change the temperature of the air, but rather the duration it remains on. NEST is pretty, but way over engineered for the task. Consumers just don't need it. I'm all for technology and am an early adopter and of course have heard of NEST, seen them etc. Like you say, it's hard to imagine some one here not having done so, but my guess is the commenter has seen them, but just didn't take it in because "home automation" has a long legacy of being utter crap. When you get past the pretty design, there's nothing really to the thing. It's just a massively over engineered pretty consumer device that very few people need. I'm pretty sure Apple didn't buy them because they could just as simply designed their own. I fail to see why the thermostat can't (if Apple were to design it) not have a UI at all but rather just be a little plugin thing, maybe "Thermoport Express" and you use your iPhone to make changes from anywhere, don't even need to get up and look at the device. Any hardware solution quickly looks old. The iPhone (to Apple) is the UI for everything.
- kashkhan 13y ago
  > the temperature setting doesn't actually change the temperature of the air, I am sorry... yes having a higher temp setting means the heat will on for longer (or ac for less) but it DOES change the temperature of the air. The thermostat measures the temperature and turns the mahcine on and off accordingly.
  - roel_v 13y ago
    Do you honestly not know what his point was?
    - kashkhan 13y ago
      I didn't argue with the rest of his point. That he said that the thermostat changes the time the burner is on is not true. A thermostat is not a timer. Time on is not the controlled variable.
      - roel_v 13y ago
        Come on, now you're taking semantic quibbling to farcical levels. Yes it is true that a thermostat is not a timer, nobody claimed that. What it (in it simplest form) does is turn on the burner until the set temperature has been reached. My point was, for any reasonable, non-autistic reader, it was perfectly clear that the GP knows how a thermostat works and that his point was that many people think the thermostat changes the temperature that the burner generates, or at least whatever is output by that burner/installation (be it water or air). Now I don't have an opinion on that matter, but I'm annoyed by your littering of the conversation over a slight sloppiness in expression in a context that doesn't call for the level of correctness you, from your high horse, are calling for.
        kashkhan 13y ago
        > many people think the thermostat changes the temperature that the burner generates, There might be many such people but that is not what he said. I apologize that my comment clashes with your aesthetic preference of what a discussion should look like.

nostromo 13y ago

By market cap, the acquisition cost less than 1% of Google. (Still a very large number.)

bluthru 13y ago
Especially since it's cold hard cash, not equity.

nikcub 13y ago

> 5% of Google More like 0.8% - $3.2B purchase on $375B market cap. Or it is around 10% of annual gross profit, or 6% of their cash reserve of $54B.

Pxtl 13y ago
... with that in mind, knowing Google's shortcomings? If I were Google, I'd blow a fat wad of those billions and buy Sony. There's a company that would really fill in a lot of Google's gaps - gaming, consumer hardware beyond the cellphone scale, a big library of media properties to integrate into the Play store. A quick Googling puts Sony's market cap at $18B. A big chunk of Google's cash reserves, but imagine how terrified Microsoft would be of Android-powered PS5s.
- uptown 13y ago
  "imagine how terrified Microsoft would be of Android-powered PS5s" I'm not sure I agree with this. According to this article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2013/01/20/sell-microsoft-now-game-over-ballmer-loses/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2013/01/20/sell-micr... "Microsoft makes more than 75% of its profits from Windows and Office. Less than 25% comes from its vaunted servers and tools. And Microsoft makes nothing from its xBox/Kinect entertainment division, while losing vast sums in its on-line division (negative $350M-$750M/quarter)." I realize they're trying to position the XBOX One as your home entertainment hub - but the bigger question is whether there's a future for home gaming consoles at all, or whether that functionality will just be folded into your TV, cast from your mobile devices, or handled by some other connected multi-purpose device.
  - Pxtl 13y ago
    ... what's the on-line division? Skydrive and Outlook/Hotmail?
    - efbenson 13y ago
      Bing. This is an older article and they are not losing as much money anymore, but Bing has cost MS a lot of money. http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/20/technology/microsoft_bing/ http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/20/technology/microsoft_bing/

jhonovich 13y ago

Google's market capitalization is ~$375 billion so this would be just under 1% of their valuation.