Samsung, which is competing with Google and Apple to gain a foothold in home automation, is acquiring SmartThings, a start-up that makes makes mobile applications to remotely control devices in houses.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, with technology blog Recode reporting the price as $200 million (€150 million).

David Eun, head of Samsung's Open Innovation Center, said his group in Silicon Valley would be stepping up its acquisitions.

“We have been looking for companies across a lot of different spaces that have a similar vision as the Samsung approach,” he said.

SmartThings doesn’t make any devices itself and instead provides software. For instance, house keys that will buzz a smartphone if a person has left the house without them. – (Bloomberg)