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The Otto Smart Lock's Creators Are Suspending Operations

posted by cmn32480 on Friday January 05 2018, @02:17PM   
from the funding-goes-boom dept.

"MrPlow" writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Smart lock company Otto is suspending operations after a failed acquisition agreement. In a blog post late last year, CEO and founder Sam Jadallah says the company made an acquisition deal that limited its ability to fundraise, but the buyer pulled out at the last minute, leaving Otto with no remaining cash. The first locks were supposed to ship within the next few weeks, but "Otto will not ship next month and it may never ship," says Jadallah. The company will "evaluate [its] options" for moving forward in the coming weeks.

The Otto Lock was pitched as a tiny and stylish, but very expensive, smart lock. It sold for $699, and was intended for wealthy homeowners.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/1/16838016/otto-smart-lock-startup-suspends-operations

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Original Submission

• Re:looks like (Score: 3, Interesting) by driverless on Saturday January 06 2018, @02:21AM

  by driverless (4770) on Saturday January 06 2018, @02:21AM (#618586)

  This one looks different though:

  CEO and founder Sam Jadallah says the company made an acquisition deal that limited its ability to fundraise, but the buyer pulled out at the last minute, leaving Otto with no remaining cash.

  It's more along the lines of "promise to acquire company, hamstring them so they go out of business, then buy up their assets for pennies on the dollar". That happened a lot during the dot-com boom, when perfectly viable companies (not actual dot-coms) were sucked up by bigger, established predatory companies.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
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