via Richard Nieva, CNET

Excerpt

Alphabet, the mama-bird parent company of Google, is hoping 2016 is the year Nest leaves the, well, you know what.

Nest, which makes thermostats, smoke detectors and security cameras that connect to the Web, has operated pretty much independently since Google bought the company in 2013. And that was before the company formerly known as Google pulled apart its various divisions to turn them into individual companies.

“We’re going to see a [move] toward an ecosystem,” said Brian Solis, an analyst at the Altimeter Group. “Suddenly everything would be interconnected and controllable for Nest.”