Amazon has acquired Blink, a company that makes smart home camera and doorbell products, the company announced today. Blink hasn’t been around for long — it started life as a Kickstarter in 2014, and has only been shipping products for a year — but it’s already generated an impressive reputation for battery-powered devices that don’t need the wiring of many of its rivals.
Blink announced its latest product, a smart doorbell camera that gets a year of battery life off two AA batteries, just three days ago. Amazon also recently launched a home delivery service that uses smart locks and cameras to leave packages inside your door, so you can see where this is probably going.
No price has been announced for the acquisition yet, but it seems like this is a smart strategy for Blink, and a win-win for both companies. Blink’s doorbell product — and broader smart home products — are exactly what Amazon needs to compete against Google and Nest, which have been aggressively rolling out things like doorbell cameras and whole-home security systems recently. Blink’s founders get a very quick return on their company, and R&D capital to build out Blink’s product lines.
“If you own one of our systems, nothing changes for now. We’ll continue to operate under the Amazon umbrella selling and supporting the same great products you know and love,” Blink said in a statement. “It’s Day 1 for us at Amazon, and we’re looking forward to seeing what we can deliver to our customers together.”
