The Cloud Cam and Echo currently need a plug-in power source to operate. “Always-on cameras that last for months and don’t require a wired connection or an electrician to install could be game-changing. Amazon declined to comment on the acquisition’s terms or strategy.But Blink was not merely a camera business. It was cheaper, too, starting at $99.. The proprietary chip design will make it harder for rival retailers to copy Amazon’s devices, said Matt Crowley, chief executive of Vesper, a sensor and semiconductor company that makes microphones.“If we make our own camera, we don’t have to sell a hundred million” chips, he said. Laptop makers were unwilling to pay $1 per chip when cheaper options were on the market. The camera maker announced its takeover by Amazon with scant details in December 21 blog post.Amazon paid about $90 million to acquire the maker of Blink home security cameras late last year, in a secret bet on the startup’s energy-efficient chips, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.99, while Netgear Inc’s wire-free Arlo cost more still. Digital video chips “are one of the more expensive components” in a camera.Amazon’s regulatory filings show it spent $78 million on acquisition activity in the quarter ended December 31.The chips could give Amazon other advantages, too.
The online retailer is exploring chips exclusive to Blink that could lower production costs and lengthen the battery life of other gadgets, starting with Amazon’s Cloud Cam and potentially extend to its family of Echo speakers, one of optical fiber raceway the people said.”As Blink’s sales rose on Amazon’s website, the retailer took notice, sources said, leading to talks with the camera maker about a deal. Grunberg declined to discuss Immedia’s sale to Amazon.The Blink security camera, which hit the market in 2016, did not require a power cable like many rival products, making it easier to place around users’ properties. Netgear said last week it plans to spin off its Arlo business.The deal’s rationale and price tag, previously unreported, underscore how Amazon aims to do more than sell another popular camera, as analysts had thought. Flybridge Capital Partners, Comcast Ventures, Baker Capital, Dot Capital and some suppliers were investors in the company. Its little-known owner, Immedia Semiconductor, was started in Massachusetts by old hands from the chip industry.
In 2004 they sold Sand Video to Broadcom and remained there as executives, according to an Immediate website. And now that Amazon owns its own chips, it can go straight to the manufacturers, cutting out middlemen chip designers such as Ambarella, which has powered GoPro products. Sources said the bid was competitive, and that compensation and incentives offered by Amazon pushed the deal’s value to about $90 million. Blink, which says its cameras can last two years on a single pair of AA lithium batteries, could change that. Analysts have viewed Blink as part of the retailer’s strategy for Amazon Key, a new program where shoppers can set up a smart lock and surveillance camera so delivery personnel can slip packages inside their homes when they are away. The group left in 2008 to create Immedia, aiming to design chips for video conferencing, and later targeting laptop makers as potential customers. Madrona’s Jacobson, who had no knowledge of the acquisition’s details, speculated that Amazon might apply the Blink team’s expertise to cameras in drones or in its new checkout-free stores.The deal so far has drawn little attention. Dan Grunberg, a co-founder who left Immedia in 2016, said that plan fell through.
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