Amazon To Spend More Than $1 Billion For Ring Home Security

At the end of December last year, Amazon bought home security camera manufacturer Blink. What seemed like an out-of-place purchase at the time turned out to be an indication of Amazon’s desire to expand aggressively into the home security arena. According to Reuters, the e-commerce giant will be spending $1 billion for Ring, a maker of smart doorbells, security cameras, and other home security accessories. #securemagic

Ring, previously called DoorBot, had its start when its founder pitched his idea on Shark Tank back in 2013. The judges rejected the smart doorbell back then, but they didn’t know that Amazon was planning to buy it a couple years later and that IoT devices were about to grow in use throughout the world.

This purchase could be Amazon’s reaction to Google Home. However, it could also be a way for Amazon to upgrade and enhance their Amazon Key project, a project that had serious security flaws at launch. This project allowed keyless entry, as well as a way to monitor who entered and exited your home, but some have shown that the Amazon Key system could be overwritten in certain situations. Certainly, Ring’s home security systems could play well with the Amazon Key project!

With Amazon’s last big-ticket purchases, it may only be a year or two until Alexa has access to and control of everything in our homes, from the temperature to the front-door lock.