SimpliSafe Is Said to Hire Qatalyst to Evaluate Takeover Bid
SimpliSafe Is Said to Hire Qatalyst to Evaluate Takeover Bid
(Bloomberg) -- Home-security technology company SimpliSafe Inc. is working with deal adviser Qatalyst Partners to help evaluate an acquisition offer, according to people familiar with the matter.
SimpliSafe’s management is weighing the bid and no decision has been made, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The identity of the suitor couldn’t immediately be learned.
Representatives for SimpliSafe and San Francisco-based Qatalyst didn’t respond to requests for comment.
SimpliSafe sells security technology including motion sensors, panic buttons, video security and smoke detectors. Customers can use their smartphones to operate and check on the areas being monitored. Sequoia Capital invested in the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company in 2014, according to the firm’s website.
Founded in 2006, SimpliSafe has more than 2 million customers in a market that the world’s biggest technology companies are pushing into: people’s homes. In February, Amazon.com Inc. agreed to buy Ring Inc., the home-security firm known for its connected doorbells. That deal, valued at about $1 billion according to a person familiar with the matter, gives the e-commerce giant another suite of connected devices to pair with its Echo smart speaker and voice-activated assistant Alexa.
Motorola Solutions Inc. agreed in February to buy commercial security camera and video analytics maker Avigilon Corp. for about $1 billion, including debt.
Google-parent Alphabet Inc. has been rolling out its revamped in-home gadgets. Its Nest division spearheads the tech giant’s push into people’s homes with a full suite of security products, including a digital-video doorbell, an outdoor camera with a loudspeaker and an alarm system.
Apple Inc. has lagged in the race for dominance of the home-gadget ecosystem. Its HomePod smart speaker hasn’t sold as expected, and doesn’t do as much as competitors’ devices.
To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Barinka in New York at abarinka2@bloomberg.net, Mark Gurman in San Francisco at mgurman1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha
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