LG has ramped up its smart home efforts by snapping up the Dutch brand Athom, maker of the popular line of Homey smart home hubs.
The acquisition, which has seen LG take an 80% stake of Athom now, with the next 20% due to switch over the next three years, sees LG go head to head with its Korean rival Samsung in the smart home.
That’s because, like Samsung has with its SmartThings system and its array of multi-connectivity hubs, LG now has an army of smart home hardware and software expertise to tap into.
The latest Athom hub, the Homey Pro, is the 2nd-generation Pro model but is actually the 5th iteration of the brand’s smart home hub; the first Homey hub went on sale back in 2016 after the company was formed two years prior to that.
With Matter, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, Thread, Bluetooth and even more connectivity options supported with Homey, and with a superb software engine for users already built, you can see why LG would want to snap Athom up.
In recent years Samsung has started building SmartThings hubs into as many devices as it can, from TVs, to soundbars and fridges; and it would make sense for LG to copy that approach across is massive range of appliances and devices.
LG plans to integrate Athom across its AI-enabled LG ThinQ platform, which already extends to ovens, fridges, washing machines, AV equipment and a whole lot more
Athom will, we are informed, “continue to operate independently, maintaining its business operations and branding.”
Again, that’s a similar approach to what Samsung took with SmartThings after acquiring the startup in 2014.
Homey, like SmartThings did back then, already has an enthusiastic and loyal user base and so it makes sense to tap into that brand loyalty.
“The acquisition of Athom is a cornerstone for our AI home business,” said Jung Ki-hyun, executive vice president and head of LG’s Platform Business Center. “By leveraging the synergy between the two companies, we will expand our open ecosystem and external integration services, aiming to provide customers with more diverse and multidimensional space experiences.”
We’re already big Homey users here at The Ambient and so we’re pretty excited to see what happens next.
