Alphabet is one of those conglomerates that has a hand in every field connected to technology. Naturally, the growing interest in the Internet of Things (IoT) platform especially from the home automation standpoint, Alphabet’s flagship company Google is looking to improve the ways it can scale and manage millions of devices through the cloud.
To this end, the company is acquiring a company that would let it do that easily. As announced by Google in an official blog post, Google will acquire the Xively IoI business from LogMeIn for $50 million. LogMeIn had previously acquired Xively in 2014 for $12 million.
Xively allows companies to connect new devices, manage them remotely and send data from the devices into other systems. Xively’s customers include Halo Smart Labs, Lutron, and New England Biolabs. The move could strengthen Google’s ongoing efforts to battle Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud-based device management business.
Google Cloud Platform public cloud and G Suite portfolio of productivity apps collectively bring in $1 billion per quarter. On the other hand, Amazon Web Services generates more than $5 billion in revenue in the same period. Thanks to the acquisition of Xively, Google now has the opportunity to better integrate IoT-centric based services into its cloud platform, and make its offering more attractive.
“Through this acquisition, Cloud IoT Core will gain deep IoT technology and engineering expertise, including Xively’s advanced device management, messaging, and dashboard capabilities,” said Antony Passemard, head of product management for IoT and Pub/Sub at Google Cloud.
LogMeIn had a similar blog post announcing the new acquisition from Google. As such, Google will gain 45 employees from the acquisition.
“So the obvious question is, does this mean LogMeIn is exiting the IoT? Well, if you mean the IoT connectivity platform space, yes, we’re leaving it. We believe that Google Cloud, now armed with Xively’s team and great technology – and backed by their platform and developer heritage and reach – are a far better fit for the future of platform leadership,”
The new move is certainly a step in the right direction for Google who has plans of pushing its Google Cloud platform.
