Life360 announced on Monday that it has entered an agreement to acquire Tile, the company that popularized the Bluetooth trackers that recently inspired Apple and Samsung.
The acquisition will allow both companies to benefit from each other. Life360, which is known for its family-focused location and tracking features, will be able to leverage Tile’s strong brand presence in brick-and-mortar stores. Life360 already includes many features such as SOS Help Alert, crash detection, emergency dispatch, and more, which are available through the app.
Meanwhile, Tile will be able to take advantage of Life360’s network of more than 33 million smartphone users, significantly expanding Tile’s Find Network for finding objects that are outside of Bluetooth range.
Tile will continue to operate as its own brand entity after the acquisition closes, which is expected to occur sometime in the first quarter of 2022.
The acquisition comes at a time when competition in the object tracking market has begun to head up after being left largely to Tile for quite some time. Apple launched its new AirTag tracker, utilizing UWB and integrating with the Find My network. The Samsung Galaxy SmartTag+ works similarly with Android phones.
Meanwhile, Tile was left playing catch up, finally launching its own UWB-enabled Tile Ultra tracker in October, although it’s not expected to reach the market until Q1 2022. Regardless, Tile continues to make some of the best Bluetooth trackers on the market.
“This is a great day for Tile, our customers, and our employees,” says CJ Prober, CEO of Tile, who will remain in charge of the entity under Life360. “This acquisition not only brings together two incredible teams with complementary missions and values, it paves the way for us to jointly build the world’s leading solutions for peace of mind and safety. This is the next step in our journey, and I could not be more excited to continue leading our incredible team and to join the Life360 Board.”
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