Amazon to Acquire Home Wi-Fi Company Eero -- Update
12 Febbraio 2019 - 1:57AM
Dow Jones News
By Maria Armental
Amazon.com Inc. on Monday disclosed its latest bet to control
the so-called smart home, adding to its fold a company that offers
a Wi-Fi system that ditches the traditional router.
Seattle-based Amazon and fellow tech giants Alphabet Inc.'s
Google and others have been racing to use voice assistants to
control everyday devices to promote their services -- and glean
valuable consumer data.
By buying Eero -- a company that promises no Wi-Fi dead zones by
deploying a customizable armada of small wireless routers around
the house -- Amazon will go head-to-head against Google's OnHub.
Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
Like OnHub and Luma, in which Amazon had invested earlier, Eero
offers what is known as mesh Wi-Fi networks, with access points
installed around the house or an office that allow devices to
connect with the closest wireless access-point without changing
networks.
The Eero device plugs into a modem. Users can then customize the
system, adding additional devices that plug into outlets, based on
the size -- and shape -- of the house.
"From the beginning, eero's mission has been to make the
technology in homes just work," Nick Weaver, Eero's chief executive
and one of its founders, said in a statement. "We started with WiFi
because it's the foundation of the modern home."
Mr. Weaver said working with Amazon could help it bring more
Eero systems to customers around the world.
Asked on Twitter about privacy and security, given Amazon's
disclosure last year that one of its Echo home speakers had
mistakenly recorded a private conversation and sent it to a person
in the owners' contact list, Eero said that it "does not track
customers' internet activity and this policy will not change with
the acquisition." The company added that its devices don't have
microphones. An Amazon representative couldn't immediately be
reached for comment.
Eero was founded in 2014 in San Francisco. Amazon said Eero's
products and services have garnered favorable ratings with
customers on the Amazon website.
"We are incredibly impressed with the eero team and how quickly
they invented a WiFi solution that makes connected devices just
work," said Dave Limp, who oversees the company's Alexa business as
senior vice president of Amazon devices.
Amazon has been investing heavily in its Alexa virtual assistant
and the Echo devices it powers. Speaking at The Wall Street
Journal's WSJ Tech D.Live conference in November, Mr. Limp said the
company had more than doubled the number of workers dedicated to
Alexa and Echo devices since fall 2017.
--Stephen Nakrosis contributed to this article.
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 11, 2019 19:42 ET (00:42 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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