Moving deeper into the Internet of Things, Intel has acquired smart home startup Lantiq for $280 million.
The move will accelerate Lantiq’s smart home gateway and intelligent access networks business. It will also help the world’s biggest chip maker advance its position in the Internet of Things, or making everyday objects smart and connected.
Intel said that the move will help its offering in cable residential gateways as well as gateways for digital subscriber lines (DSL) over phone networks, fiber, long-term evolution (LTE), and Internet of Things smart routers. The move could also help Intel become more competitive against arch rival Qualcomm, which announced its own smart home initiative at the 2015 International CES. Big companies like Intel, Samsung, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and many others are all jockeying to become the center of digital ecosystems that drive smart homes and the larger Internet of Things. You can expect a lot more acquisitions as the Internet of Things comes to fruition.
“By 2018, we expect more than 800 million broadband connected households worldwide,” said Kirk Skaugen, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Client Computing Group, in a statement. “Intel has been a global leader in driving broadband into the home and to connected compute devices. The combination of our cable gateway business with Lantiq’s technology and talent can allow global service providers to introduce new home computing experiences and enable consumers to take advantage of a more smart and connected home.”
The deal is subject to regulatory approvals. Terms were not disclosed, but Reuters said the deal was valued at 250 million euros, or $280 million.
“Intel and Lantiq share a common vision about the evolution of the connected home and the intelligent network,” said Dan Artusi, CEO of Munich, Germany-based Lantiq, in a statement. “Together we can drive the transformation of the broadband customer premises equipment (CPE) as it becomes a smart gateway that connects an increasingly diverse roster of devices and services in the home.”
Lantiq’s main investor was San Francisco-based Golden Gate Capital. Lantiq said it has over 2,000 patents related to broadband communications and offers technologies including xDSL solutions with vectoring and G.Fast, as well as fiber-based technologies such as fiber to the distribution point (FTTdp). Lantiq produces chips for these devices.
Intel estimates that 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet of Things by 2020. Samsung, which bought SmartThings for $200 million last year, said that 100 percent of its products will be connected to the Internet of Things within five years