Amazon Acquires Blink Wireless Camera Startup

Amazon has acquired Blink, a wireless camera startup that offers free cloud storage and no monthly fees.

Blink announced the acquisition today:

---
We’re excited to announce that Blink has been acquired by Amazon! Since launching in early 2016, we’ve been thrilled by your response to our ultra-affordable, truly wire-free video home security cameras and monitoring systems.


If you own one of our systems, nothing changes for now. We’ll continue to operate under the Amazon umbrella selling and supporting the same great products you know and love. It’s Day 1 for us at Amazon, and we’re looking forward to seeing what we can deliver to our customers together.

Thank you for your enthusiasm and support for Blink!
---

Blink currently makes an indoor camera and outdoor camera. Both are wireless and claim two years of battery life under limited use (40,000 seconds). The indoor Blink camera kit costs $99 and the outdoor Blink XT camera kit costs $129. The company also has a Doorbell camera on the way.


Notably, Amazon appears to have cut off SmartThings support with its acquisition of Blink. Upset customers unaware of the acquisition have been posting in anger on Amazon's review system.

"Loved this camera until yesterday when out of no where Blink decided to completely disable any integration with Smart Things, and all we received was an email saying sorry as of today it will no longer work. Bad business decision," says A. Hicks.

The acquisition is a logical one for Amazon, having recently released Cloud Cam, its first home security camera.

Read More