LG Electronics has acquired an 80% stake in Netherlands based smart home platform, Athom, with plans to acquire the remaining 20% within the next three years.
This strategic move aims to enhance the company’s connectivity within open smart home ecosystems. By integrating Athom’s capabilities, LG aspires to lead the AI-driven home innovation era.
LG plans to integrate Athom’s connectivity – which links appliances, sensors and lighting devices – with the LG ThinQ platform and gain a deeper understanding of the customer to create a more personalised environment.
Athom sells the smart home hub ‘Homey,’ which connects with home appliances and IoT devices, and offers cloud subscription services. Founded in 2014, ‘Homey’ has expanded primarily in Europe over the past decade. As of 2023, Homey devices are also available in Australia, Singapore, the US and Canada.
Athom has developed its own hub and operating system to create an independent smart home ecosystem. Its flagship product, Homey Pro, can connect to more than 50,000 devices and supports various connection methods, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Matter and Thread.
The Homey App Store offers around 1,000 applications for connecting and controlling home devices from brands such as Philips Hue and IKEA. Many of these apps are based on official partnerships, alongside many apps developed by the Homey community.
LG is positioned to enhance the scalability required for implementing AI homes by integrating its LG ThinQ platform’s smart home technology with Athom’s open ecosystem and IoT device connectivity.
The acquisition will enable LG to incorporate third-party devices and services into its ecosystem.
LG executive vice president and head of Platform Business Centre, Jung Ki-hyun said, “The acquisition of Athom is a cornerstone for our AI home business. 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.”
After the acquisition, Athom will continue to operate independently, maintaining its business operations and branding, to maximise growth potential and unique strengths while fostering synergies in business, research and development capabilities, and platform utilisation.
The introduction of the LG AI home, which integrates Athom’s open smart home platform with its own AI technology, underscores the company’s commitment to transitioning from a hardware-focused to a software-based platform business.
LG Electronics CEO, William Cho said, “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 entries into platform-based appliance services and solutions such as the webOS advertising platform and AI home.”