Benzinga | Jan 12, 2022 06:56AM EST

Johnson Controls Acquires FogHorn; Terms Not Disclosed

- Acquisition to accelerate Johnson Controls' innovation and vision for Smart Autonomous Buildings by pervasively integrating Foghorn's industry leading Edge AI platform throughout OpenBlue.

- Edge AI platform brings intelligence to the source of data inside the building, enabling secure, real-time machine learning driven solutions that address the pressing challenges of sustainability, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and smart, secure buildings.

CORK, Ireland, Jan. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI), the global leader for smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, has completed the acquisition of FogHorn, the leading developer of Edge AI software for the industrial and commercial Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.

Johnson Controls acquires Foghorn's world-class Edge AI for its OpenBlue smart buildings platform.

"Value is increasingly being created by applying intelligence at the edge-device level to create real-time, secure, actionable insights," said Johnson Controls CTO Vijay Sankaran. "By pervasively integrating Foghorn's world class Edge AI throughout our OpenBlue solution portfolio, we are accelerating the pace towards our vision of smart, autonomous buildings that continuously learn, adapt and automatically respond to the needs of the environment and people."

As the number of sensors and amount of data in buildings continues to grow exponentially, the value of processing data and applying intelligence at the edge, without having to send data to the cloud, becomes increasingly pronounced.

Sastry Malladi, who served as Chief Technology Officer at Foghorn, will join Johnson Controls, reporting to Sankaran as Vice President, OpenBlue Artificial Intelligence.

"We are thrilled to bring the Foghorn team and edge AI capabilities to Johnson Controls and OpenBlue," said Sastry Malladi, Foghorn's Chief Technology Officer. "By combining our respective strengths, Johnson Controls can make an even bigger impact on continuing to address some of the world's most pressing challenges of decarbonization, sustainability and energy efficiency, indoor air quality and smart, secure buildings."

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. FogHorn's technical team will be integrated into the OpenBlue Solutions organization. FogHorn's headquarters in Sunnyvale, California will function as an 'AI Hub' for Johnson Controls.