Google invests $450 million in ADT, forms Nest reseller deal

Google said Monday that it has formed a strategic partnership with home security giant ADT. Through the deal, Google will make a $450 million equity investment in ADT, which in turn will help Google resell its Nest family of smart home products.

In a blog post, Google said the Nest portfolio would bolster ADT's security monitoring capabilities and "become the cornerstone" of ADT's smart home offerings.

"The goal is to give customers fewer false alarms, more ways to receive alarm events, and better detection of potential incidents inside and around the home," said Rishi Chandra, Vice President and GM at Nest. "It will also provide people with more helpful notifications that make everyday life more convenient, like package detection. ADT customers will also have access to Nest Aware, a service that keeps people informed about important events at home, including intelligent alerts and event history recording for up to 30 days."

Google acquired Nest and its range of smart thermostats and alarms back in 2014 for $3.2 billion in cash. The deal was important for the search giant's smart home portfolio and its efforts to expand its hardware design know-how. The home automation company also opened up its products to developers, with an eye of making it the dominant player in the Internet of Things field.

Now the companies are merged under the Google Nest brand within Google's hardware unit. The move was meant to make it easier for Google to add artificial intelligence software like Assistant into new Nest products.

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