Alphabet is rolling its smart home unit, Nest, back into Google proper, the company announced in a pair of blog posts on Wednesday.
When Alphabet blew up its corporate structure in 2015, Nest was regarded as one of the model "Other Bets," but the unit subsequently experienced product struggles and the departure of its CEO. Meanwhile, Google increased its own focus on the home with its line of smart speakers, which compete with Amazon's Echo products.
The company writes that by bringing Nest back into Google, it can "supercharge Nest's mission." Nest's current CEO, Marwan Fawaz, will now report to Google hardware chief Rick Osterloh, and the merger will mean that Google's artificial intelligence, like its smart assistant, will be better baked into Nest products, CNET reports.
The potential of this move was originally reported by The Wall Street Journal in December, Google CEO Sundar Pichai hinted at it during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call.
"We've had a head start on collaborating since our teams already work closely together, and today we're excited to make Nest an integral part of Google's big bet on hardware," the company writes.