Smart Moves

The M&A activity in the "Smart" sector has definitely been hot this year. It all started with Google buying Nest for $3B and then we had several smaller acquisitions (Dropcam and Revolv). There was Samsung buying SmartThings last Summer and recently Qualcomm surprised many paying $2.5B for the Bluetooth Smart pioneer, CSR. Qualcomm's move could have been anticipated by an earlier transaction when it acquired Stonestreet One, a Bluetooth software stack provider. It certainly looks like Qualcomm is moving beyond cellular communications further into the Smart Home area, placing a bet on Bluetooth as the underlying technology (in opposition to Google betting on 802.15.4).

Now I wonder where this all leaves Intel and Apple? Will Intel buy Nordic Semiconductor? Will Apple stay remain only the UI / Application layer player or will they bet on a particular IoT networking technology? With the increasing pace of the moves on the Smart arena, I think we will not have to wait too long for the answers.

BTW: Qualcomm is certainly moving beyond smart phones. They wan to grow even faster. With WiFi they have computers and multimedia, with Bluetooth they will reach out to wearables and home automation, with cellular they will be connecting homes to the Cloud.