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Amazon just announced their acquisition of the famous smart doorbell manufacturer, Ring. This company gained recognition for their doorbell camera that sends video using Wi-Fi directly to your smartphone. You can see who’s at your door from anywhere in your home as long as you have your phone next to you. Although no price was officially revealed certain sources claim that Amazon spent the amazing $1 billion for this purchase. Before this acquisition, Amazon supported Ring through their Alexa Fund that offers up to $100 million to innovative young companies. It appears that the company impressed Amazon enough with their work, and inspired them to take over.
Why Did Amazon Acquire Ring?
What do we actually know about Ring? The company is a brainchild of Jamie Siminoff, a young inventor who even appeared on Shark Tank with his doorbell invention, only to be rejected by the judges. Despite that, he continued to work on his surveillance system and managed to grab Amazon’s attention. Interestingly, sometime ago, Siminoff compared working with Amazon to nuclear energy. On one hand, there’s an incredible amount of energy that can help you achieve anything you want; on the other hand, you can get radiated if you’re not too careful. He still chose to give Amazon a give all their security projects a great boost.
If you think that one billion dollars is a huge amount for such a company, keep in mind that, according to a research done by NPD Group, Ring had a 97% share of all the doorbells sold in the USA last year. Although there are a number of copies on the market (some of them even offered cheaper on Amazon), it is clear that Ring provides the quality customers demand. Now, although Amazon doesn’t plan to interfere with the company’s creative process and leave it as independent as for example, Twitch, it’s possible that they will encourage cooperation with another company they acquired in December, Blink, as they also work in the field of home security.
Do you believe Amazon paid a good price for this company?
