Control4 Acquires NEEO Remote Control

Control4 Corporation (NASDAQ:CTRL) has acquired Switzerland-based NEEO, creators of smart home remotes, to accelerate its leadership in delivering remotes, touchpanels, keypads, and other smart home devices.

Introduced in 2016, NEEO’s original remote, which is sold direct to consumers, is known for its simplistic set up, out-of-box interoperability with thousands of devices, and its sleek industrial design. With this acquisition, the NEEO remote will no longer be sold direct to consumers. 

Meanwhile at CEDIA Expo 2018 in San Diego, NEEO announced the launch of its NEEO PRO remote with integration to Kaleidescape, Lutron, and Control4, among others.  

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The NEEO PRO version features more powerful hardware and a whole set of professional channel specific software, according to founder Raphael Oberholzer. He noted some of the highlights of the NEEO PRO are the admin interface for installation professionals to maintain systems of any size remotely and the Multi-Brain feature which allows integrators to build systems of any size. NEEO PRO is compatible with over 60,000 devices.

"Thanks to its architecture there is – compared to the traditional control systems – no single point of failure," said Olberholzer in an online blog. 

Based in Bern, the NEEO product team, led Oberholzer, will be working with the Control4 engineering group in Salt Lake City on the development of the next generation of Control4 remote controls, touchpanels, keypads, and other devices. Oberholzer will take a leadership role in the development of Control4’s interaction devices and will report to Charlie Kindel, Control4 senior vice president, Products & Services. 

Raphael Oberholzer (left), NEEO founder, will report to Charlie Kindel, Control4 senior vice president, Products & Services.

“Raphael built a world-class customer-centric product team with proven strengths in industrial design, product development, and user experience. We’re keen to add NEEO’s unique expertise and award-winning Swiss design ethic to enhance our plans for reimagining the way homeowners interact with their Control4 systems,” says Martin Plaehn, chairman and CEO of Control4.

“The NEEO acquisition is a talent and technology investment that will yield beautifully-designed and deeply integrated products in the future. We’re excited to welcome the NEEO team to the Control4 family,” he adds.

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“From the start, it was obvious that both our companies are passionate for customer-centric design,” says Oberholzer. “By joining the Control4 team, we can execute our shared vision to accelerate the creation of beautiful products consumers want in their smart home.” 

As mentioned, NEEO previously sold its remote to homeowners online but is discontinuing all direct-to-consumer distribution in connection with this transaction. Control4 will support existing NEEO customers via www.neeo.com and plans to provide an upgrade path to make it easy for users to experience Control4’s broad array of smart home solutions.

NEEO originally launched with funding from Kickstarter in January 2015. 

Control4 is exhibiting at ISE 2019 in Amsterdam this week and showcasing its smart home solutions including the KNX line of smart lighting, multiroom audio and video offering, Triad speakers, award-winning Intercom Anywhere video intercom solution, Pakedge intelligent networking solutions, and security cameras.