Amazon completed its acquisition of smart-home security company Ring this morning and dropped the price of the Santa Monica, Calif.-company’s original video doorbell to $99.99 — a gesture that has become one of the Seattle tech giant’s signature moves on such occasions. The doorbell previously sold for $179.
Ring will continue to operate independently, Amazon confirmed in a joint news release Thursday announcing the completion of the deal. However, the companies say they “will work together to accelerate Ring’s mission to reduce crime in neighborhoods with affordable, effective home security products and services.”
The acquisition, first reported by GeekWire on Feb. 27, promises to move Amazon and its Alexa voice assistant further into the home security market. Reuters at the time put the price at more than $1 billion, although Amazon has yet to confirm the number even with the completion of the deal this morning.
The Ring deal “is just the beginning—we will continue to move quickly and work hard to empower customers with a suite of security solutions that provide an affordable, effective way to secure homes and neighborhoods,” said Dave Limp, Amazon’s senior vice president of Devices and Services, in a statement.
While the price on the original Ring video doorbell is being dropped, Ring’s latest Video Doorbell 2 continues to sell for $199, with the higher-end Video Doorbell Pro selling for $249 and the Video Doorbell Elite going for $499.
Amazon similarly dropped prices on selected items at Whole Foods after completing its $13.7 billion acquisition of the upscale grocer, although the overall impact hasn’t been as significant as it might have looked initially.
With the Ring acquisition, Amazon has three separate lines of home security cameras. The others are the Blink smart home camera products, which it acquired last year; and Amazon’s homegrown Cloud Cam, which is currently discounted to $99.99 as part of a special deal today.
