Comcast Agrees to Acquire Startup Icontrol Networks -- 2nd Update
June 23 2016 - 4:28PM
Dow Jones News
By Patience Haggin and Scott Martin
Cable giant Comcast Corp. has agreed to acquire Icontrol
Networks Inc. in a deal for the company's Internet of Things
technology.
Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
Icontrol Networks, which is based in Austin, Texas, has raised
$93.5 million from venture-capital backers including Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers, Intel Capital and Comcast Ventures,
according to Dow Jones VentureSource.
The Icontrol Converge software platform has been the system
behind Comcast's Xfinity Home system for touch-screen panels and
works with servers in the background. The software enables
communication and management for home sensors as well as cameras
and thermostats.
Separately, Alarm.com said on Thursday it has agreed to acquire
the other elements of Icontrol's business.
Icontrol, founded in 2003, supports connected home security and
does business with a number of Xfinity Home's competitors,
including COX Homelife and Time Warner Cable IntelligentHome.
Comcast will continue to support and grow Icontrol's wholesale
business, said Daniel Herscovici, senior vice president and general
manager of Xfinity Home at Comcast.
The acquisition makes Comcast a player in the market for
security infrastructure serving the growing network of connected
consumer devices. "We are the glue that powers and enables all
those devices to talk to each other," Mr. Herscovici said.
The exit for Icontrol's investors highlights further corporate
interest in the nascent Internet-of-Things security sector. Cisco
Systems acquired Internet of Things security system Jasper
Technologies for $1.4 billion in March.
Under the deal, Comcast will take on about 75 to 100 of
Icontrol's employees, including its engineering team, Mr.
Herscovici said. Comcast declined to say whether this would include
Icontrol Chief Executive Robert Hagerty.
Mr. Herscovici declined to disclose the deal's financial terms,
saying only that the acquisition price was "not material" given
Comcast's market capitalization of more than $150 billion. He
declined to say whether Comcast had purchased a majority of
Icontrol's assets.
The home security company Alarm.com, based in Tysons, Va., will
purchase Icontrol's other business elements, including its Canadian
subsidiary Piper and a product called Connect, which powers ADT
Corp.'s home security system Pulse. Alarm.com paid $140 million in
cash and debt for its share of the company, according to a press
release.
Comcast first invested in Icontrol in 2009 through its venture
capital arm.
Write to Patience Haggin at patience.haggin@wsj.com and Scott
Martin at Scott.Martin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 23, 2016 16:13 ET (20:13 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024