GE Current Buys Daintree Networks to Build Out Open Solution for IoT Networking

General Electric’s fairly new Current business unit scored a major acquisition in Daintree Networks, a provider of open-standard building control solutions for commercial facilities. GE said the acquisition will enable Current to expand its building automation platform and its energy-as-a-service offering to small- and medium-size facilities through the deployment of Daintree’s open, standards-based wireless control systems.

Today, 90% of the world’s small- to mid-sized buildings do not have building automation systems. Integrating Daintree Networks’ open-standard networked wireless control solution, ControlScope, into Current’s building automation portfolio addresses that problem. ControlScope, combined with Current’s building automation portfolio, links data from lighting and HVAC systems directly to Predix, GE’s industrial Internet software platform, allowing customers to analyze their energy consumption and identify data patterns to increase efficiency and reduce power levels.

“By combining Daintree’s open-standard control and sensing technology with GE’s Predix platform, Current’s building automation platform and its energy-as-a-service offerings, we’ll deliver the industry’s first next-generation, scalable cloud-based energy management and facilities optimization platform for every building type and size,” said Maryrose Sylvester, president and CEO of Current, powered by GE, in a press release. “Our combined strengths will help customers, big or small, achieve a reduced carbon footprint and increased energy savings, and provide a solution for ecosystem partners to grow.”

GE said the acquisition brings to Current an extensive ecosystem of value-added resellers, system integrators and device partners with long-standing experience in helping enterprises deploy and optimize ControlScope in commercial, retail and industrial environments. In recent months, Daintree, a big proponent of the ZigBee open networking protocol, inked several deals to collaborate with lighting manufacturers, including Osram Sylvania, a long-time GE competitor, and LG Innotek, a huge Korean manufacturer of LED drivers and other electronics and networking products.

When the Daintree-Osram Sylvania collaboration was announced last month, Tom Shottes, head of digital systems, Americas, for Osram Sylvania said, “The Osram Connected Lighting Module (CLM) is one of the first devices to enable ‘out-of-the-box’ wireless, controllable LED light fixtures. The module can be inserted into any fixtures that have a driver capable of providing 12V auxiliary output. It instantly makes them smart and wirelessly controlled. Through our collaboration with Daintree Networks, customers now have one device with built-in standard wireless controls. It’s a tremendous step towards simplifying wireless fixture integration.”

Derek Proudian, CEO of Daintree Networks, told a group of business journalists at a Current media luncheon during Lightfair that, “The winning strategy is an open strategy.”

“Daintree has been in the enterprise Industrial Internet space for a long time, so we are excited to join Current in bringing customers an enhanced lighting and energy management solution that can be applied to a wide range of buildings including grocery stores, neighborhood banks and offices,” he added in a press release.

Upon completion of the acquisition, Current will integrate Daintree’s employees in California, Australia and Massachusetts into its structure.