LG strengthens IoT portfolio with Athom buy

LG has acquired an 80 % stake in Athom, a Netherlands-based good house platform firm, with plans to buy the remaining 20 % inside three years.

The acquisition will combine Athom’s in depth connectivity capabilities, which hyperlink hundreds of home equipment, sensors, and lighting units, with LG’s generative AI-enabled ThinQ platform. This mix is anticipated to create an AI house that delivers personalised environments tailor-made to buyer preferences.

“The acquisition of Athom is a cornerstone for our AI home-based business,” stated Jung Ki-hyun, government vp and head of LG’s Platform Enterprise Heart.

“By leveraging the synergy between the 2 corporations, we’ll broaden our open ecosystem and exterior integration providers, aiming to offer clients with extra numerous and multidimensional house experiences.”

Athom, based in 2014, is understood for its good house hub ‘Homey,’ which has gained a loyal buyer base of lots of of hundreds of customers, primarily in Europe. The corporate’s flagship product, Homey Professional, can connect with greater than 50,000 units and helps numerous connection strategies, together with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Matter, and Thread.

The Homey App Retailer presents round 1,000 functions for connecting and controlling house units from numerous manufacturers. Many of those functions are primarily based on official partnerships, whereas others are developed by the energetic Homey neighborhood.

LG plans to leverage this acquisition to include third-party units and providers into its ecosystem, offering deeper insights into buyer utilization patterns and accelerating the supply of personalised providers. Regardless of the acquisition, Athom will proceed to function independently—sustaining its enterprise operations and branding.

This transfer aligns with LG’s broader technique of transitioning from a hardware-focused to a software-based platform enterprise. The corporate goals to determine steady relationships with clients via units related to the AI house, remodeling right into a ‘Good Life Answer Firm’ that gives differentiated worth.

William Cho, CEO of LG Electronics, commented: “LG is evolving into an clever house options firm that connects and expands experiences in numerous residing areas.

“We are going to proceed to make strategic investments to shift our enterprise paradigm, as evidenced by our successive entries into platform-based equipment providers and options such because the webOS promoting platform and AI house.”

The worldwide good house market is projected to develop from $81.2 billion in 2023 to $260.24 billion by 2028, with a median annual development fee of 26.23 %, based on market analysis agency TechNavio.

(Picture Credit score: LG)

See additionally: Samsung tackles grid stability with good house power system

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Tags: ai, synthetic intelligence, athom, generative ai, homey, homey professional, web of issues, IoT, lg, matter, good house, thinq, thread, z-wave