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British Gas has today announced its acquisition of smart home company AlertMe, as part of its expansion of the Hive platform.
The energy giant picked up the firm for a net cost of £44 million, taking into account British Gas’ existing 21 per cent holding in AlertMe.
AlertMe works on innovations for the ‘next generation’ of Internet of Things technology.
British Gas hopes to use the company’s expertise to help grow the Hive Heating network and move towards becoming ‘the UK’s leading connected homes provider.’
Hive by British Gas currently boasts more than 150,000 customers that are able to remotely control home heating from a mobile device.
What’s more, Hive Active Heating is already powered by AlertMe’s platform, which makes this acquisition fairly unsurprising.
Related: British Gas Hive Active Heating review
Nina Bhatia, Commercial Director at British Gas, said: “This acquisition underlines our commitment to helping to helping customers manage their homes, including their energy, more easily.”
“Already, we’re the only business in the UK that can build the technology, develop the software, and provide expert in-home installation and service.”
She added: “With access to new technology and skills, we’re strengthening our capability at British Gas to develop a family of products that will put people in control of their homes in a way that’s simply never been possible before.”
British Gas says the transaction will be completed by the end of the quarter.