ADT + Google + Alarm.com?

Recent Q3 earnings announcements from smart home security giants ADT and Alarm.com helped to clear up the smart home picture a bit, as both companies addressed the current and future state of their partnership in light of ADT’s recent megadeal with Google earlier this year.

Both company CEOs talked at length about their future plans as it relates to all parties involved, creating an interesting landscape as the race to control the smart home tightens while getting a little less murky at the same time, at least for the short term.

Alarm.com President and CEO Stephen Trundle gave an update on ADT, noting a partnership renewal between the two.

“Under the extended agreement, ADT will continue to promote and install their highly successful command and control offering to nearly all new professionally installed smart security subscribers until early 2023,” he said. “Under the terms, we will support ADT with the integration of certain specified Google products into the command and control platform in early 2021. After the extended period ends, ADT has indicated that in 2023, they intend to begin activating professionally installed — accounts in their residential business on a software platform that they are developing in concert with Google. We have agreed to support this initiative with the royalty-bearing IP license.”

Trundle said that it is important to note that the agreement with ADT “also anticipates that Alarm.com will continue to provide service to all existing ADT subscribers on both of the Alarm.com software platforms for the full service life of the subscriber accounts.”

Trundle added that Alarm.com is “excited to resolve this uncertainty” by extending the agreement with ADT until 2023, noting, “We expect to continue to support ADT and millions of ADT subscribers who are serviced by our software platforms over the next decade.”

ADT + Google + Alarm.com?

ADT President and CEO James D. DeVries also addressed the current and future dynamic with Alarm.com and Google.

DeVries noted that discussions with Alarm.com about “accelerating the road map resulted in a great outcome for both parties and included the launch of a first-generation ADT + Google offering developed through the commitment by Alarm.com that will result in several things.

“First, it leverages the foundation and extends Command and Control until the end of 2022, and then beyond that, allows that platform to support our end customers for a very long time. And we believe these customers — these Command and Control customers with integrated Nest product and services will perform well on an attrition basis. The second thing, integrated Google Nest services and Google Video services will be available and accelerate our go-to-market with a co-branded offering in the second half of 2021 instead of mid-'22. So in short, the agreement that we put in place and negotiated with Alarm.com allows us to pull forward many of the benefits that are resident in the ADT + Google partnership.”

He added that while ADT’s partnership with Alarm.com “has been extraordinary,” ADT is “better positioned … in coordination with Google … to own and develop our own platform.”

DeVries continued, “We think, at a high level, we'll capture efficiencies — efficiency benefits as a result. And then secondly, the point I made earlier about controlling our destiny, we can better navigate our own unique product road map to create differentiation for us in our products and services in a better way.”

So while both ADT and Alarm.com appear to be playing nice for now, what the Google deal means longterm remains to be seen.