Google announced moments ago that it has acquired Nest Labs for $3.2 billion in cash.

For those not familiar, Nest “reinvents” home products that you either neglect, ignore, or don’t realize could be awesome and then makes them something you can’t live without. They are the creators of the Nest Thermostat and most recently, Nest Protect (smoke alarm). I reviewed the Nest Thermostat earlier in the year, calling it my favorite Android accessory, thanks to its ease of use, automation, and potential energy saving prowess. We have Nest Protects in house and will be doing some sort of review or overview in the near future.

In case you missed our story back in mid-December, we received word from sources suggesting that Google was in the middle of testing a similar smart home, thermostat application called EnergySense. The UI of the product looked identical to that of Nest, which we noted at the time. To see Google decide to buy Nest is somewhat surprising, yet not all that surprising. Nest is doing amazing game-changing things with home products, an arena Google has been eyeing since its introduction of [email protected] some three years ago.

According to the press release, Nest will continue to operate under current leadership and with its own “distinct brand identity.” Google hopes to help bring Nest to homes in more countries. Nest said that they will now be even “better placed to build simple, thoughtful devices that make life easier at home, and have a positive impact on the world.”

Whoa.

Update: Here is a Q&A posted to Nest’s site concerning the acquisition –

Will Nest continue to support iOS so I can have the Nest app on my iPhone or iPad?

Yes, absolutely. We’ll continue supporting iOS, Android and modern web browsers so you can check in on your home and control the temperature from wherever you are. Will Nest and Google products work with each other?

Nest’s product line obviously caught the attention of Google and I’m betting that there’s a lot of cool stuff we could do together, but nothing to share today. What will happen to the Nest warranties on products?

No change there – we stand behind our products like we always have. Will I still be able to find Nest products at my local retailer?

You bet. We intend to continue selling through the same partners in the US, Canada and the UK. Will Nest customer data be shared with Google?

Our privacy policy clearly limits the use of customer information to providing and improving Nest’s products and services. We’ve always taken privacy seriously and this will not change.

Update 2: Nest CEO Tony Fadell had this to say in a blog post –

So if things are going so well, why did we decide to partner with Google? Google will help us fully realize our vision of the conscious home and allow us to change the world faster than we ever could if we continued to go it alone. We’ve had great momentum, but this is a rocket ship. Google has the business resources, global scale and platform reach to accelerate Nest growth across hardware, software and services for the home globally. And our company visions are well aligned – we both believe in letting technology do the hard work behind the scenes so people can get on with the things that matter in life. Google is committed to helping Nest make a difference and together, we can help save more energy and keep people safe in their homes. … Nest will continue to be Nest, with its own distinct brand identity. We will continue to reimagine and reinvent the unloved products that proliferate in our homes, just as we have since we started. We are simply going to get our products into the hands of people around the world – faster.

Press Release