Life360 to acquire Tile for $205 million | ZDNet

Life360, a family-oriented location-sharing app, plans to acquire Tile for $205 million, the companies announced Monday. The deal is expected to close in Q1 2022. 

By acquiring Tile, which makes bluetooth-enabled finding devices trackers, Life360 will gain access to broad swath of customers. Tile’s technology is embedded in more than 50 different third-party devices, like wireless earbuds, headphones, laptops and dog collars. More than one million third-party devices already have activated Tile technology. Meanwhile, Tile devices are sold directly to consumers via more than 27,000 brick and mortar stores. 

Additionally, both companies have significant paid subscription services, and the acquisition is expected to increase Life360’s paid subscriber base by about 45% to around 1.6 million people. 

“Life360 is on a mission to simplify safety so families can live fully. With the acquisition of Tile, we will now be able to provide a unique and all-encompassing solution for finding the people, pets and things that families care about most,” Chris Hulls, Co-Founder and CEO of Life360, said in a statement. “This acquisition marks a key step forward towards Life360 achieving its vision of being the world’s leading platform for safety and location services.” 

The deal will also help Tile, months after Apple became a direct competitor with the AirTag tracker. The Apple device leverages the Find My network to privately crowdsource the location of tags. Tile’s network works in a similar fashion, but falls short of what Apple offers with the Find My network. 

However, Life360 said its global footprint will significantly expand the reach of Tile’s Finding Network. The addition of Life360’s network of 33 million smartphone users is expected to increase the reach of Tile’s Finding Network by about 10x.

After the deal closes, Tile will continue to operate with its own brand identity under the leadership of Tile CEO CJ Prober, who will also join the Life360 Board of Directors. The Tile team is expected to remain in place.