The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today officially granted permission for Google to acquire Nest, the connected devices company best known for making a smart home thermostat. Google first announced its plan to acquire Nest for $3.2 billion in cash back on January 13.
Sources tell TechCrunch that Google now plans to position Nest’s technology and team as its “core hardware group.” Apparently as part of that strategy, two weeks after announcing plans to acquire Nest, the search engine giant sold off its Motorola Mobility segment to Lenovo for $2.9 billion.