Google has paid $US450 million for a 6.6 per cent stake in America’s largest provider of security and monitoring services. The 2 are now working on a smart home platform that will allow users to connect their security system to all their other home systems, including the entertainment system, energy systems and communication systems.
Ultimately the partnership will see ADT replace Pulse, Command and Blue alarm and home automation controllers with Google Nest cameras, Google Home Hub and newly developed solutions.
“I do see this as a real extension of the strategy we set for ourselves a couple years ago,” explained Rishi Chandra, vice president of product and general manager, Google Nest.
“Our mission has always been to create a home that takes care of the people inside of it and the world around it. And we fundamentally believe the way to do that is to bring AI computing technology to areas like the home but bring it together through partnerships where it can deliver an end-to-end customer experience.
“If we want to really breakthrough and start addressing real pain points inside the home we need to think end-to-end. And that’s an awesome opportunity between combining all the great Google technology we’re building, and the huge investment we’re making across ambient computer technology with Google Assistant and all our AI capabilities inside Google,” Chandra said. “But also, all the great services that ADT is offering from the installation and professional monitoring services to consultation and support.
“We are working together on that timeline,” Chandra said. “We’re hoping to make significant progress through next year. We’ll share more details once we have them, but the teams are actively working on it right now. We are building a smart home platform, which is going to allow us to extend the capabilities in a whole bunch of ways so you can connect your security system to all your other systems inside your house, with the entertainment system, the energy systems, communication systems,” Chandra said. “So that’s the bridge we want to build together. That’s what we’re working to build over the next few years.”
“Think about it as Google’s next generation technology, combined with ADT’s professional monitoring, alarm verification technology and people,” Boyce added. “We have terrific distribution capabilities to access the home and we’ve already got over six-and-a-half million subscribers. So that’s a framework.”
Jim Boyce, ADT’s president and chief business development officer, said the transition would not happen overnight but he pointed out the ADT-Google relationship was “a long-term commitment by both companies that is built to last.”
“We will be anchored in Google Nest products going forward – that’s not going to happen tomorrow, that’s going to take some time,” Boyce said. “But we look at this as an opportunity to apply Google’s exceptional innovation, including product and technology innovation capabilities in Nest products, AI and machine learning capabilities, together with the platform that we have today.”
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