Snips is a small, 50-person outfit, and that was reflected in the size and speed of the deal. Sonos bought the firm for $37.5 million, and it quietly closed on November 14th.

The buyout is a recognition of an intensifying smart speaker market. Competitors have usually leaned more on voice assistants than audio quality to challenge Sonos, but that gap is closing -- it's now possible to get rival speakers that are comparable in both sound and smarts. Snips could help Sonos stand out by delivering performance that isn't possible elsewhere.