Google's acquisition of the smart thermostat and smoke detector maker Nest Labs, which came out of the blue yesterday, has certainly set tongues wagging. And when you think of it, the shock and awe didn't stem from the business side of things - it came from buying users of a lovable service in a non-physical space, but whose relationship with the service is part physical.
And to think it all began like a fairy-tale...
Here's a cutesy little startup led by Tony Fadell, a former Apple engineer who used to lead the iPod's development over seventeen generations before leaving Cupertino amid feud with design guru Jony Ive and iPhone software head Scott Forstall to co-found Nest Labs, along with fellow Apple staffer Matt Rogers.
"Starting a business focused on the lowly thermostat seemed like a crazy idea at the time," Fadell wrote yesterday in a blog post. Turned out a lot of people fell in love with his smart thermostat. Just as Nest was about to complete another round of funding, Google swept in and bought the company outright for $3.2 billion in cash.
Sources claim Google was the only serious bidder and Apple was not in the mix. Heck, the iPhone maker didn't even bother to put up a fight. But why? Here are some of the more popular theories floating around (feel free to add your own in the comments)...
