LG Electronics has made a strategic move to acquire 80 percent of Netherlands-based smart home company Athom, aiming to strengthen LG's connectivity within an open smart home ecosystem.
The company plans to acquire the remaining 20% of Atom within the next three years.
By integrating Athom's capabilities with LG's Affectionate Intelligence technology, the company aims to become a leader in the AI-driven era of home innovation.
Athom is a smart home technology company that sells the smart home hub “Homey,” which connects to home appliances and IoT devices, and provides cloud subscription services.
Founded in 2014, Homey has grown over the past decade, primarily across Europe, building a loyal customer base of hundreds of thousands. As of 2023, Homey devices are available not only across Europe, but also in Australia, Singapore, the US and Canada.
Through the acquisition, LG will integrate Athom's extensive connectivity with its Generative AI-enabled LG ThinQ platform to build an AI home that provides optimal spatial solutions by better understanding customers. In LG's AI home, customers will work with Generative AI to manage their home appliances and IoT devices to create a personalized environment that matches their preferences.
The company also envisions expanding outside the home, bringing the differentiated customer experience of AI Home to the various spaces where customers spend time, including commercial spaces and mobility environments, ultimately realizing and developing the concept of “intelligent spaces”.
LG is positioned to greatly enhance the scalability required for AI Home implementations, aiming to achieve industry-leading standards by integrating the smart home technology of its LG ThinQ platform with Athom's open ecosystem and IoT device connectivity.
The acquisition will also enable LG to incorporate third-party devices and services into its ecosystem, giving it deeper insights into customer usage patterns and accelerating the delivery of personalized services.
Following the acquisition, Athom will continue to operate independently, maintaining its operations and brand. This strategy is aimed at maximizing Athom's growth potential and unique strengths, and driving synergies in its business, R&D capabilities and platform leveraging.
LG aims to transform into a 'Smart Life Solutions Company' that builds ongoing relationships with customers through a multitude of devices connected to its AI home and ultimately provides differentiated value.
William Cho, CEO of LG Electronics, said, “LG is evolving into an intelligent spatial solutions company that connects and enhances experiences in different living spaces. We will continue to make strategic investments to transform business paradigms, as evidenced by our successive forays into platform-based home appliance services and solutions, such as the webOS advertising platform and AI Home.”
Main iImage: LG Electronics
