Motorola Mobility Acquires Connected-Home Startup 4Home

Motorola Mobility, the set-top and mobile handset subsidiary of Motorola, has acquired 4Home, a developer of software and services for delivering "connected home" services such as home-security monitoring.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition, which is subject to usual closing conditions, is expected to close by the end of 2010.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based 4Home's ControlPoint software lets service providers offer energy management, home security and monitoring, media management and home health.

"At Motorola Mobility, we continue to invest in our converged experiences portfolio, and 4Home provides a wealth of services and software applications that offer consumers control and information for their digital lives," Motorola Mobility president Dan Moloney said in announcing the deal. "The addition of the 4Home portfolio helps expand our vision of converged experiences in the home and beyond."

Investors in 4Home include Pond Venture Partners, Parker Price Venture Capital and Verizon. The 40-employee company was founded in 2005.

Last month, two other players the emerging broadband home management space -- iControl Networks, whose investors include Comcast, and uControl -- announced a deal to merge.

Separately, on Tuesday, Motorola announced that its board of directors has approved the separation of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. from Motorola Inc., which will occur Jan. 4, 2011. On that date, Motorola Inc. will change its name to Motorola Solutions Inc. and will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MSI, and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. will begin trading on the NYSE under the ticker symbol MMI.