The 3.2-billion-dollar acquisition of Nest Labs Inc. by Google Inc. may prove out to be sufficient to arouse a multibillion-dollar race to purchase some companies, which are carrying into effect the rise of Web-connected devices across homes, cities and workplaces.
According to Recon Analytics LLC, after the Nest Labs Inc. acquisition, which Google announced this month, some of its competitors such as Microsoft Corp. may also start looking to snap up companies with the technology and patents associated with smart devices. According to the researcher International Data Corp. (IDC), the market for the so-called Internet of Things, which includes all kinds of devices – from Web-enabled home appliances to centrally linked industrial equipment, is forecast to generate a revenue estimated to 8.9 trillion dollars by 2020, which almost doubles the 4.8-trillion-dollar revenue from 2012.
One of the analysts working for Evercore Petners Inc. – Mark McKechnie, said in a telephone interview cited by Bloomberg: “Google buying Nest, it kind of ignites the space. Everybody talks about the Internet of Things as the next big thing. Its almost like putting smartphones onto homes, cars, people.”
On January the 13th, the company officially announced that it was buying Nest Labs Inc., which is under Tony Fadell. Mr. Fadell is the former Senior Vice President of Apple Inc. The Nest Labs acquisitions price is almost two time bigger the size of the YouTube acquisition of the company in 2006.
John Quealy, who is an analyst working for Canaccord, said in a phone interview for Bloomberg: “This market is fairly new. We havent seen any standard valuations yet.”
Currently, a great range of companies including Cisco Systems Inc., AT&T Inc., ARM Holdings Plc, General Electric Co. and Intel Corp., have become more focused on making money by providing a variety of wireless, connected gadgets, which vary from smoke detectors to industrial equipment, with software, hardware, components or connectivity.
Roger Entner, who is one of the analysts of Recon Analytics, said in an interview and was cited by Bloomberg: “The ultimate path for all these companies is to be omnipresent in our lives. It doesnt matter if you are Google or Microsoft. They want to collect as much information as possible.”
According to the CNN Money, the current share price of Google Inc. is 1.98% up, and its one-year return rate is 0.21% up. The 42 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Google Inc. have a median target of 1,200.00, with a high estimate of 1,350.00 and a low estimate of 880.00. The median estimate represents a 6.86% increase from the last price of 1,123.01.