LG Electronics acquires Athom to facilitate AI smart home push

South Korea’s home appliance giant LG Electronics Inc. said on Wednesday it has acquired Athom B.V., a Netherlands-based home automation company, to facilitate its smart home ecosystem push.

LG said it recently signed a deal to acquire an 80% stake in Athom on condition that it would buy the remaining 20% within the next three years.

LG didn’t provide the deal’s value but sources estimated it to be about 85 billion won ($61 million).

Following the deal, Athom will continue to operate as an independent business under its current brand to maximize its growth potential and unique strengths while fostering synergy with LG in the smart home business, R&D capabilities and platform utilization.

With the stake purchase, LG plans to integrate Athom’s extensive connectivity, which links thousands of appliances, sensors and lighting devices, with the generative AI-enabled LG ThinQ platform.

The integration, LG said, aims to create an AI home, which will allow customers to engage with generative AI to manage appliances and Internet of Things (IoT) devices and create a personalized environment tailored to their preferences.

“By integrating Athom’s capabilities with LG’s intelligent technology, LG aspires to lead the AI-driven home innovation era,” the Korean company said in a statement.

KNOWN FOR HOMEY

Headquartered in Enschede, Athom is known for Homey, a mobile and web application interface that allows third-party developers to add support for their products via the Homey smart home hub.

Like other smart home hubs, Homey acts as a central point of configuration, control and monitoring of components in a smart home.

Launched in 2014, Homey has primarily been available in Europe, gaining a loyal customer base in the hundreds of thousands. Homey devices are now also available in Australia, Singapore, the US and Canada.

Athom’s flagship product, Homey Pro, offers connectivity in more than 50,000 devices and supports various connection methods, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Matter and Thread, making it highly versatile and open.

The Homey App Store, managed by the Dutch firm, offers around 1,000 apps for connecting and controlling home devices from brands such as Philips Hue and IKEA.

TO COMBINE LG THINQ WITH ATHOM’S OPEN API

LG said its vision is to create “Intelligence Space” by integrating LG ThinQ platform’s smart home technology with Athom’s open application programming interface (API), which will enable LG to incorporate third-party devices and services into its ecosystem.

“The acquisition of Athom is a cornerstone for our AI home business,” said Jung Ki-hyun, executive vice president and head of LG’s Platform Business Center. “By leveraging the synergy between the two companies, we will expand our open ecosystem and external integration services, aiming to provide customers with more diverse and multidimensional space experiences.”

LG webOS, ALPHONSO

According to market research firm TechNavio, the global smart home market is forecast to grow from $81.2 billion in 2023 to $260.24 billion by 2028, posting an average annual growth rate of 26.2%.

LG’s acquisition of Athom underscores its commitment to transforming from a hardware-manufacturing company to a software-based platform business.

In 2021, LG entered the TV platform market with its webOS platform, offering its smart TV buyers thousands of films and other streaming content for free.

To support this business shift, LG acquired Alphonso Inc., a US-based TV data analysis startup, in 2021. Alphonso now operates as LG Ad Solutions Co., a core part of LG’s webOS content and service business.

“LG is evolving into an intelligent space solutions company that connects and expands experiences in various living spaces. We will continue to make strategic investments to shift our business paradigm, as evidenced by our successive advance into platform-based appliance services such as the webOS advertising platform and AI home,” said Chief Executive Cho Joo-wan, known in the West by his English name William Cho.

Write to Kim,Chae-Yeon, Hwang,Jeong-Soo and Eui-Myung Park at why29@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.