First time in two years! This giant announces: Major Acquisition!

The smart home sector has recently seen a major acquisition.

South Korean electronics giantLGElectronicsannounced on July 3 the acquisition of an 80% stake in the Dutch company Athom, the manufacturer of the well-known smart home platform Homey.It also plans to complete the acquisition of the remaining 20% stake in Athom within the next three years to expand its ThinQ smart home ecosystem and introduce third-party device support.

This move is part of the South Korean consumer electronics giant's business development plan for AI-driven home connectivity systems. This initiative is seen as a direct response by LG to Samsung'splatform.

It is also reported that this merger is LG Electronics' first company-wide M&A activity in two years, and its first acquisition of a software company in three years, marking LG Electronics' significant layout in the smart home sector.

According to data, Athom, headquartered in Enschede, Netherlands, specializes in technology for connecting home appliances, sensors, and lighting devices , and provides cloud subscription services. Its main product is the smart home hub Homey , which can connect home appliances and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The Homey Pro platform supports over 50,000 home appliances and IoT devices, with more than 1,000 apps available in its app store to connect and control products from global brands such as Philips and IKEA. Homey has mainly expanded in Europe over the past 10 years, with hundreds of thousands of users, and is listed in Australia, Singapore, the United States, and Canada.

LG plans to integrate Homey with its ThinQ platform, creating personalized smart home environments through generative AI , and expanding to commercial and mobile spaces . Through this acquisition, LG will integrate Homey's smart device connectivity features, including brands such as Ikea, Aqara, and Philips Hue , enabling its ThinQ platform to control more devices and providing customized services to customers. At the same time, Homey users will be able to control LG's ThinQ smart appliances through the platform.

LG emphasizes that Athom will continue to operate as an independent company, retaining its existing brand and business model. This is similar to Samsung's acquisition of SmartThings in 2014 , where Samsung has integrated SmartThings' multi-device connectivity features into various products.

LG Electronics believes that it is difficult to gain new growth momentum solely relying on home appliance products with low profit margins. Therefore, the company decided to expand its business areas by acquiring software companies. This acquisition of Athom is LG Electronics' first software-related M&A activity in more than three years since the acquisition of Alfonso in 2021.

LG Electronics CEO emphasizes the company's goal to become a smart space [[17. 产业与经济常用词|Solution]] provider.LG executive Jung Ki-hyun stated that this [[17. 产业与经济常用词|Acquisition]] is the cornerstone of its [[1.3 技术缩写与型号（各语言通用，保留原文）|AI]] home business.

The company did not disclose the financial details of the transaction.However, according to The Korea Economic Daily, the deal is estimated to be worth approximately 85 billion won (about $61 million), though the exact amount has not been made public.

Homey stated that its founders, Emile Nijssen and Stefan Witkamp, will continue to serve as executives, dedicated to developing Homey Cloud and Homey Pro, as well as launching more new products.

The global smart home market is expected to grow rapidly.According to data from market research firm Technavio, the global smart home market size is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 26.23%, increasing from $81.28 billion in 2023 to $262.35 billion in 2028.

Source materials: Global Times, Long Jianxiu Nan, etc., comprehensively edited and compiled