Will.i.am wants to take over your house. I.am+, the tech company founded by the erstwhile Black Eyed Peas star, has bought home hub manufacturer Wink.
Wink makes a smart home hub and platform in competition with bigger names like Amazon Alexa and Apple HomeKit, leading up to the Wink Hub 2 last year. It originally emerged from Quirky, a New York-based developer of crowdsourced inventions that went bankrupt in 2015 and sold Wink to chipmaker Flextronics for $15 million.
It hasn't been confirmed how much i.am+ paid for Wink.
From the wacky foto.sosho camera case to the critically panned Puls and Dial smartwatches, Will.i.am's startup has so far been notable for its nonstarters. Perhaps this move into the smart home automation market will, to borrow a phrase, get it started.