Comcast Agrees to Acquire Startup Icontrol Networks -- 2nd Update

By Patience Haggin and Scott Martin 

Cable giant Comcast Corp. has agreed to acquire Icontrol Networks Inc. in a deal for the company's Internet of Things technology.

Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Icontrol Networks, which is based in Austin, Texas, has raised $93.5 million from venture-capital backers including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Intel Capital and Comcast Ventures, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.

The Icontrol Converge software platform has been the system behind Comcast's Xfinity Home system for touch-screen panels and works with servers in the background. The software enables communication and management for home sensors as well as cameras and thermostats.

Separately, Alarm.com said on Thursday it has agreed to acquire the other elements of Icontrol's business.

Icontrol, founded in 2003, supports connected home security and does business with a number of Xfinity Home's competitors, including COX Homelife and Time Warner Cable IntelligentHome. Comcast will continue to support and grow Icontrol's wholesale business, said Daniel Herscovici, senior vice president and general manager of Xfinity Home at Comcast.

The acquisition makes Comcast a player in the market for security infrastructure serving the growing network of connected consumer devices. "We are the glue that powers and enables all those devices to talk to each other," Mr. Herscovici said.

The exit for Icontrol's investors highlights further corporate interest in the nascent Internet-of-Things security sector. Cisco Systems acquired Internet of Things security system Jasper Technologies for $1.4 billion in March.

Under the deal, Comcast will take on about 75 to 100 of Icontrol's employees, including its engineering team, Mr. Herscovici said. Comcast declined to say whether this would include Icontrol Chief Executive Robert Hagerty.

Mr. Herscovici declined to disclose the deal's financial terms, saying only that the acquisition price was "not material" given Comcast's market capitalization of more than $150 billion. He declined to say whether Comcast had purchased a majority of Icontrol's assets.

The home security company Alarm.com, based in Tysons, Va., will purchase Icontrol's other business elements, including its Canadian subsidiary Piper and a product called Connect, which powers ADT Corp.'s home security system Pulse. Alarm.com paid $140 million in cash and debt for its share of the company, according to a press release.

Comcast first invested in Icontrol in 2009 through its venture capital arm.

Write to Patience Haggin at [e-mail] and Scott Martin at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 23, 2016 16:13 ET (20:13 GMT)

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