And with that we wait for our fate to arrive in silence…
Lol!! Excited and afraid to see what comes or doesn’t come 
Add me to the sad list. Home kit here we come
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I think Amazon should buy SmartThings. If others are like me, Amazon will make tons selling the home automation devices to those who did not realize they needed them.
Isn’t their model to sell hardware to help their customers buy more? The SmartThings interface fits right into this philosophy.
This is so addicting.
Being completely invested in the Apple ecosystem, and the current feud between these two companies, it looks like this is probably the end for me. I am kind of glad I didn’t invest in the system more, but I can’t imagine things will get any better for those of us completely on the iOS side. Lets hope HomeKit proves to be a sutiable alternative.
Squid7085, I agree with and echo everything you said. And I can’t stand Samsung as a company; they focus on “me too” product development, and I have not been impressed with any Samsung product I’ve owned. They seem interested in releasing products with fancy specs that ultimately underwhelm when it comes to user experience. I can only imagine how quickly they will wreck SmartThings - one way or the other.
I had so much hope for this company. Please let this supposed acquisition turn out to be false.
So, I was doing a bit of research. Control4 (which I own a complete system) went public last year. They currently have a market cap of $422 million. Putting a value of $200 million on Smartthings puts it at roughly half of what Control4 is valued at in the market.
This seems odd. Control4 is a mature HA platform, dealer install only, expensive as crap (I know) and has support of a ton of third parties (just not Nest, another story)…
Anyway, I do find the valuation a bit wonky, as if I had the money ($200 mill) I don’t think I’d buy Smartthings outright… But then again, I don’t have the money…
Nothing still from Samsung or Smartthings officially on any deal. Starting to think something might be going on. Not that a sign and close is a reality these days, but if they have a contingent offer on due diligence, then that would explain the black out for communications…
Oh well, time will tell. Did find it intersting that Samsung and Nest / Google announced “Thread” almost at the same time as this rumor surfaced…
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Well, I think SmartThings has a few things going for them that Control4 doesn’t. They are in the media a lot recently, they are open source, and they seem to have a big following right now. Perhaps I’m bias as I have SmartThings and therefore am aware of SmartThings, but I think they are one of the better known HA startups recently.
So if you’re a major corp looking for a way to get your foot into the door as far as HA is concerned, what company do you look at to buy? WigWag? Not sure they are even shipping yet. Ninja Sphere? Again, pretty dang new. ST might not be as mature as Control4, but it’s a lot more stable then many other startups right now. So if you’re looking to buy a HA to get started, what options out there look the best? I’d say ST is near the top of the list in terms of affordability, stability, and following.
I get the feeling too that while $200 M isn’t “pocket change”, it also isn’t the sort of money that Samsung is going to really miss if ST turns out of be a bomb for them. Maybe ST is closer to $150 or even less. But if you really want to get started and you can afford it, why dicker over a few million and risk losing the chance to buy? Especially if you can easily afford it?
In any acquisition though, there is also something called Goodwill which tends to put an arbitrary figure into the valuation. It isn’t just assets - liabilities + projected profits or anything simple. I know you probably understand this already, mostly just adding to the discussion.
If true, good for the owners, bad for the company. Samsung will ruin it and claim it’s the next big thing. I’ll be moving to the next real thing.
Homekit is not a hub or control platform. It’s integration at the iOS level so that you can control your devices from a single point like speaking to Siri. Apple has not said anything about hub’s, standards or the like. I highly doubt they will because it’s not a core business for them. The most I could see them doing is saying “Designed for Apple Home” or something like that to ensure other manufacturers a compliant. So Philips Hue would presumably still use their own hub and you could control that hub via voice through Siri.
I am perfectly aware of what HomeKit is, I don’t need an explanation. What Apple is doing removes the need for a hub. I don’t need an in-between to tell my lights I am home. My only use of the Smarthings is trying to have a central point of control, it that is done using a hub or on the phone itself, that doesn’t bother me, I just needs to work.
What Apple is doing removes the need for a hub. I don’t need an in-between to tell my lights I am home.
uhhh… yes you do. Homekit does not remove the need for a hub. How do you expect your iPhone to speak to Z-Wave switches or directly to Philips Hue bulbs? You need something that the iPhone can speak to which in turn speaks to the various devices. That would be a hub of some sort. All Homekit does is give you OS level access / integration of commands that can speak to hubs.
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Might I suggest some of the Homekit discussion transfer over to the topic where it has been discussed:
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There could be a positive to a Samsung purchase. This would give SmartThings patent protection. They could concentrate on connecting devices and let corporate lawyers fend off patent claims.
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We can officially talk about our merger with Samsung. It is going to be exciting and I am glad we can now answer your questions and concerns directly.
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Congrats, guys! Excited to hear what’s next!
I will comment a bit more tonight but this is really an amazing time for SmartThings and the community. The promise of remaining independent and separate from Samsung has shown vision and intelligence and will allow us to fulfill on the dreams we have had for this company when we founded it early in 2012. I am so proud of what we have built, but what we are about to build will be epic.
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Congratulations @Ben and SmartThings; it’s really been gratifying to see how you guys took this project to something that’s already changing the industry. It’s one of the few Kickstarter’s I’ve backed where I really felt like I was backing a big idea rather than buying something, and with 25 “things” in my house, I’m pretty all in now.
I a bit MORE nervous about the potential for support on other platforms now, in the same way Nest being bought by Google is likely to impact the direction of their innovations. Announce a client for my primarily Windows based household though and that’ll take care of those concerns nicely ;-).
–jim
@jameslew on Twitter
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@Ben FYI, the blog is down 
http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/http://blog.smartthings.com
I have questions, but maybe they’re already answered in the blog.
/nevermind. It’s back up, probably the initial hit when everyone just got the mailer.