Google Announces Intent to Acquire Xively for $50 Million

Written by David Marshall

Google has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Xively, a division of LogMeIn, Inc. for $50 million.

To better set the stage for the growing market landscape, the company said by 2020, it’s estimated that about 20 billion connected things will come online, and analytics and data storage in the cloud are now the cornerstone of any successful IoT solution. 

Google stated the deal will "complement" its Google Cloud efforts to provide a fully managed IoT service that easily and securely connects, manages, and ingests data from globally dispersed devices. Adding, "With the addition of Xively’s robust, enterprise-ready IoT platform, we can accelerate our customers’ timeline from IoT vision to product, as they look to build their connected business."

Through this acquisition, Cloud IoT Core is expected to gain deep IoT technology and engineering expertise, including Xively’s advanced device management, messaging, and dashboard capabilities.  And with Google Cloud’s deep leadership in data analytics and machine learning, customers will be uniquely positioned to build turnkey IoT solutions and focus on business value creation. 

So the obvious question is, does this mean LogMeIn is exiting the IoT?  The answer, according to LogMeIn, "Well, if you mean the IoT connectivity platform space, yes, we’re leaving it.  We believe that Google Cloud, now armed with Xively’s team and great technology – and backed by their platform and developer heritage and reach – are a far better fit for the future of platform leadership."

Instead, the company said it would continue to invest in their Support-of-Things initiatives for products like LogMeIn Rescue, Bold360, GoToAssist, Central, Rescue Lens and SeeIt – all offerings that will continue to help its customers support new types of connected products, as well as the connected consumers that use them.

LogMeIn bought Xively back in 2014 for $12 million.  On a conference call Thursday, LogMeIn said Xively had generated $3 million in revenue during the last quarter of 2017.