Google acquires Revolv… and then kills it off

Home automation seems to be a particular niche market that has certainly grown by leaps and bounds, and it does not look as though it is going to slow down anytime soon. In fact, Google’s very home automation company known as Nest Labs has just purchased the home automation company known as Revolv. Unfortunately, this particular acquisition did not end up on a nice note, since the entire product line has been shut down none the sooner. 

Do you get the impression 2015 is going to be a very big year for home automation? Google’s home automation company Nest Labs has just bought the home automation company Revolv and promptly shut down its product line. This is only months after Nest also acquired the networked-home-security company Dropcam. Visitors to Revolv’s website, perhaps looking for the Revolv hubs that help other home automation devices communicate with each other, are now told that the hub has been merged into Nest’s “Works With Nest” program and will no longer be on sale. The hub was a wireless networking centre with seven different radio transceivers, that could take connections from disparate smart devices around the home and unite them all under one user interface. Devices such as smart locks, smart light globes, even Nest’s smart thermostat, could all be corralled by the one Revolv hub.