Will.I.Am buys Wink

Wink — the smart home hub and platform originally incubated inside the failed connected object maker Quirky, and then acquired by Flextronics (now known as Flex) as part-payment for Quirky’s debts — has moved on to its third owner. i.am+, the “lifestyle technology company” owned by musician and entrepreneur Will.i.am, has acquired the company.

Flex disclosed the sale of Wink in its quarterly report published yesterday, without specifying the buyer. It noted that the buyer paid $38.7 million upfront for Wink, plus a $20 million commitment towards future manufacturing.

First, Wink is only worth $59 million? Can we declare the smart home to be dead now?

Second…Will.I.Am? Ummm…

I have a smart home which i started with a few quirky for a test and was completely disgusted with. I then quickly moved to google - and am now adding some Samsung elements. i love my smart home and actually get breaks in my insurance bills / energy bills and piece of mind. I have followed quirky and in the beginning was not very optimistic that their business model would succeed. After bought 2 of their products and saw the low end quality and lack of experience in execution from - housing - to programming (they would push updates that did not work) i had even less faith.

What do you see as the difference between their business model and Samsung?