Motorola Mobility Acquiring 4Home; Your DROID Will Soon be Cooking Your Toast

Motorola Mobility’s announcing that they’ve begun the process to acquire 4Home, a software development firm who brings to reality that “smarthome” future we’ve all been dreaming about. With 4Home’s wares, you can control security features, lighting, heat, media, and more. With Motorola Mobility’s acquisition, the power to do all of that will likely make its way into Motorola’s high-end Android handsets, including the tablets we expect them to introduce soon.

“At Motorola Mobility, we continue to invest in our converged experiences portfolio, and 4Home provides a wealth of services and software applications that offer consumers control and information for their digital lives,” said Dan Moloney, president, Motorola Mobility. “The addition of the 4Home portfolio helps expand our vision of converged experiences in the home and beyond.”

“As part of Motorola Mobility, the 4Home team will continue to increase the adoption of our award-winning connected home services platform by tapping into new business segments, such as cable, as well as adding significant resources to support our current customers and partners,” said Leon Hounshell, president and CEO of 4Home. “We’re excited to become a part of Motorola Mobility, a premier innovator in communications, and look forward to leveraging our team’s expertise to make meaningful contributions to the business.”

This comes not even a day after Reuters reported Motorola would be bringing a product that would allow consumers to stream media to and from mobile devices. It sounds like this acquisition could be the first step in getting that out, but that remains to be seen. We’ll dream as much as we want, but we’ll probably be waiting until the latter parts of 2011 before we hear anything regarding tangible products to come from the deal. Press details straight ahead.

4Home’s industry leading services and software connect the home and empower consumers to control and access information for their digital lives

December 01, 2010

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. – Dec. 1, 2010 – Motorola Mobility, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 4Home, Inc., a developer of a patented and award-winning software and services platform that bridges the gap between the consumer and the devices that deliver services and information in today’s connected home.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close by the end of the year.

4Home delivers connected home services through its carrier-grade software platform, ControlPoint. These services include energy management, home security and monitoring, media management and home health. ControlPoint is based on a customizable design, using open standards that allow partners to develop compelling new services for consumers that utilize the growing number of connected devices in the home.

“At Motorola Mobility, we continue to invest in our converged experiences portfolio, and 4Home provides a wealth of services and software applications that offer consumers control and information for their digital lives,” said Dan Moloney, president, Motorola Mobility. “The addition of the 4Home portfolio helps expand our vision of converged experiences in the home and beyond.”

“As part of Motorola Mobility, the 4Home team will continue to increase the adoption of our award-winning connected home services platform by tapping into new business segments, such as cable, as well as adding significant resources to support our current customers and partners,” said Leon Hounshell, president and CEO of 4Home. “We’re excited to become a part of Motorola Mobility, a premier innovator in communications, and look forward to leveraging our team’s expertise to make meaningful contributions to the business.”

About 4Home
4Home is a leading provider of “connected home services,” which include energy management, home security and monitoring, media management, and home health. 4Home’s ControlPoint™, Portal Server, and SDK software products allow hardware vendors and service providers to create and deploy compelling, easy-to-use, and profitable new applications and services for the connected home. A single copy of the networked ControlPoint software installed anywhere on the home network provides whole home coverage — from anywhere and at anytime. Portal Server is a robust application server for the NOC providing scalable and manageable home control services for a broad, mass-market rollout. 4Home, Inc. is based in Sunnyvale, CA, and its investors include Pond Venture Partners, Parker Price Venture Capital and Verizon Investments, Inc. For more information on 4Home and its award-winning solutions, please visit www.4Home.com.

About Motorola
Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications and is focused on advancing the way the world connects. From broadband communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility and public safety solutions to mobile and wireline digital communication devices that provide compelling experiences, Motorola is leading the next wave of innovations that enable people, enterprises and governments to be more connected and more mobile. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) had sales of US $22 billion in 2009. For more information, please visit www.motorola.com.

[via IntoMobile]