Wrong question. How much time would it cost Google to build Nest from scratch?

They failed with Google Video. Well, they manage to build the second biggest video sharing site, with millions of users. But nevertheless they had to buy YouTube and merge it.

The team has to count for something here. It's not just a few geeks who built an app. It's guys with lots of experience building incredibly successful products. Google doesn't have a lot of experience in hardware design. Nest do.

On the hardware design side of things, they did kinda sorta buy Motorola Mobility. It really seems that they've under capitalized on that purchase- and that was 12 billion dollars!

It's not the tech, it's the install/customer base.

How large is the installed base? It appears to be small for smart thermostats and even smaller for Nest.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/11/02/2877211/smart-th...

Would it really take $3.2b to engineer a product similar to Nest and market it to an even wider audience? I'm happy for Nest guys, but the number is a bit ridiculous.

You also get Tony Fadell, which is pretty damn huge. It’s almost like acquiring a Forstall company.

I would have been a Nest customer, now I won't be. Oh well.