Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) has quietly purchased PowerCloud Systems, the privately held maker of the Skydog Wi-Fi router and app that lets users monitor and modify how broadband is used in their homes.
No financial details have been released for the deal, which was originally reported on and confirmed by TechCrunch,
Last week, PowerCloud--spun off from the Xerox R&D lab, the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 2008 and privately funded with around $6 million--announced that it had been acquired and would no longer be selling its Skydog routers. Existing customers, however, could continue to use the app until the end of their subscription. SoundCloud released no information as to who had bought the company.
On Monday, July 14, Tyson Marian, a strategic development executive for Comcast, confirmed the purchase, telling Venture Beat that PowerCloud's technologies will be folded into Comcast's product porfolio starting in 2015.
Skydog, he added, will enable Comcast broadband subscribers to manage all their IP devices, tracking which ones are using the most resources, while also identifying clandestine connections to the home network by intruders. "It's all around smart Internet," he told Venture Beat.
For more:
- read this TechCrunch story
- read this Venture Beat story
Related links:
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Updated July 14 as the transaction was confirmed.