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Home Automation Startup
iControl Secures $50 Million

PALO ALTO, CALIF. — Broadband home-automation
and security vendor iControl Networks disclosed
$50 million in fourth-round funding, bringing its
total investment to more than $100 million from
investors that include Comcast.

The latest round of funding in iControl was led
by energy and “clean tech” investors, which the
company did not identify. Existing investors that
contributed to the latest round included Comcast,
Cisco Systems, Intel, Rogers Communications,
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ iFund, Charles
River Ventures and Tyco International, the parent
company of ADT Security Services.

Comcast, Time Warner Cable and ADT are among
the providers that have launched home security and
automation services based on the iControl platform.

Google Buys DVR Software Firm SageTV

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. — Internet giant Google has
acquired SageTV, a developer of digital video recorder
software for PCs. Terms of the deal were not
disclosed. The acquisition closed June 18.

Google declined to comment on future product
plans or how it intends to use the SageTV software.
Inglewood,
Calif.-based
SageTV was
formerly known
as Frey Technologies
LLC. The
company was
founded in 2002;
SageTV has not
disclosed its investors.

SageTV and
Google were among the seven companies that
founded the “AllVid Tech Company Alliance,” to
lobby the Federal Communications Commission
to force pay-TV providers to comply with specific
technical video specs that could be accessed by
third-party consumer-electronics devices.