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Amazon has acquired eero

https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/11/18220960/amazon-eero-acquisition-announced

Congratulations to eero. Not terribly shocking to me that they got acquired but still kind of a bummer. Acquisitions usually don’t result in being a good thing for the customers of the pre-acquisition product. I’m also not a big fan of Amazon’s privacy functionality. At least I know my current eeros don’t have Alexa built in :)

32 replies

    • Abmet
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Dang, I just purchased a 2nd gen Eero, two Beacons, and signed up for Plus. Also purchased an Eero and Beacon for a family member because I was so impressed. Holding out finally judgment but my gut reaction is not good. Can’t see the same privacy or excellent support remaining the same.  

    • davebarnes
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    So, what is the alternative?

    I just bought eero products because Apple stopped making routers.

    Now what?

    • Iceman_21
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    And...........they just lost me as a customer

      • Abmet
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Iceman 21  I just invested $600. Can’t say I would have done that if knew Amazon was buying them. Guess I’m now in wait and see mode. 

    • Byter
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Oh crap, I feel terrible about this.  The king of spy's has just invaded my home to monitor all my internet traffic and develop a dossier on me and my family.  Ok, so maybe facebook is the king and Amazon only a prince, but this is a horrible development for privacy.  

    • Danabw
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Yeah, pretty bummed about this. Do not want or need Alexa in my Eero system in any way, shape, or form.  Just want it to continue to  "just work" as it has since I bought it. Was going to replace my parents router with an Eero setup, now that's on hold. Wish Eero could have thrived while  staying independent. 

    • Skeeter
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    This is actually great news!  Amazon is a company that acquires and innovates, not shutters.  With Amazon at the helm, they have the resources and the tech to take the anemic eero Plus solution and actually make it something worth using.  Certainly by gen3 I would have to believe we will see new branding in place and more integration with Alexa and ZigBee for smart home integration and control.

      • Fan of tinkering with new hardware. Canadian dude.
      • cotedan87
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      davebarnes Skeeter  eero already uses AWS for some of its services. I too enjoy the privacy aspects eero, and for now i am holding strong with eero. The alternatives - Google, Netgear, Linksys etc - offer nothing for privacy. In fact, they need to be avoided for security, privacy and bad software design. Eero has shown its strength throughout. 

      • Skeeter
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      cotedan87 Agreed and good to know they are already on AWS in some capacity.  The problem as I see it beyond privacy is if you look at the alternatives they just are not as good. I've been an eero member since they first launched and have left them twice for better tech but just did not find it and ultimately the stuff ended up on CL, ebay or Facebook for sale.  Google's tech was fine when compared to gen 1 of eero but gen 2 is on an entirely different level with performance. Netgear's Obi did not perform well, left empty spots in my house, their app just sucked, and these things are unsightly in the house. I have really nothing to comment on about Linksys except I moved away when mesh started.

      While I appreciate and share the concern over privacy, there is a reason we are all here on the eero forums and that is we choose eero because we feel it's a great product and offering. I would let the dust settle, see what communication comes out either from eero or Amazon and get a sense of where the product will go.  As I mentioned before Amazon has a history and reputation of innovation on acquisitions not shuttering.  From my perspective this was a strategic buy from Bezo's the future is going to be bright.   (A check was put in the mail last week from him...LOL 😂) 

    • Mgreer316
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I don't see this as a bad thing at all because the developments in software don't seem to provide the most requested features. Assuming it's a resource issue, Amazon should eliminate that. 

    • JG01
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Well they can add me to the list of another lost customer. Back to  Netgear :(

    • Mgreer316
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I find it amazing that people have decided to vacate the platform without knowing what is going to manifest from this buyout. I'm reserving my opinion and delaying my decision until I see what will come about. I've been disappointed that a request was made 2 years ago followed by hundreds of seconds that due to internet providers enforcing data caps, we need to know what our total monthly traffic is and ideally know the monthly data usage at the device level. But there's been nothing from eero in this regard. Additionally, eero plus offers no real benefits. The eero hardware is great and the software has been very stable for me. But there needs to be more software functionality and more configurability. Amazon ownership may expedite this. Then again, they may prioritize stuff I don't need, want, or care about. Right now, nobody knows. 

      • Nino
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Mgreer316 I think this reflects fatigue that people have with mega-corporations having access to so much data about our daily lives. I have explicitly avoided Google Wi-Fi due to this and am considering jumping ship from Eero also after this announcement. I'm not going to unplug everything today; however, Eero team will need to be super clear as to what this means regarding telemetry and data accumulation. There are many many people that are stating they plan to jump ship on Eero subreddit, for example.

      It remains to be seen how this pans out; I am definitely ready to leave.

      • Byter
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Mgreer316  I'm amused by you comment. I'm not making any changes just yet because I could be, and hope I am, wrong and Amazon turn out to be a privacy white knight.   But I'm not hopeful.  I'll post a link to the expected upcoming change in privacy policy and user agreement for us to discuss when that happens so we can discuss how bad it could be for eero owners. 

      It's hard to beat today's eero privacy policy which states, to quote Lauren Goode of Wired, https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-eero-smart-home/

      Eero privacy policy currently states that the company collects data about users’ Eero networks to optimize performance, that it may share anonymized data, and that it may share personal data with third-party service providers. However, it also states, “We don’t ever track the websites you visit or collect the content of your network traffic. We don’t sell our customer data, and we don’t sell ads based on this data.” 

      I don't think we will be waiting long for a change. I hope I am wrong, I really do, but I will be shocked if that last two sentences about "We don't..."'s survive in any shape or form. 

      I'm amazed more people are not appalled by this transaction.  But then most people don't give a hoot about personal information privacy.  Maybe that's even the majority of people and maybe you're in the camp of "I don't care if they know" that I hear a lot.  But some of us care a lot.

      • Mgreer316
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Byter I'm glad I can amuse you even though I don't see what was amusing. I'm leery about Amazon's intentions, but I also want to see valuable strides made in the eero software that has yet to come about. So I'm in observation mode. 

      • Skeeter
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Byter This is a valid point but if you and the others that are ready to jump ship want a possible glimpse into the future I would check out the privacy polices for the following:  Amazon Dot or Show, Ring and see what they say.  I would think this might give us a good idea as to what Amazon might do with the privacy concerning eero. 

    • Abmet
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I’m definitely waiting to see what happens before making any decisions.  Hopefully they will be allowed to continue with the things that helped me decide to invest I their products but with more resources to innovate and improve. 

    • rcooked
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    If Prime members get Eero plus for free, I will be thrilled.  Taking a wait and see viewpoint...

      • YetAnotherUserName
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      rcooked Or if they're just more active in development in general.

    • Chi7
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Well i own ring devices and blink cameras, prior to both recently being bought by amazon.  So far everything’s working well, no changes in support or functionality. So far, so good.  I hope it stays the same withEero.  

    • Mr_J
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I’m not a fan of this. I liked the fact that eero was an independent start-up. I like supporting the “little guy”.

    But I have no say in this, I just hope it continues to work seamlessly.

    👎🏾

      • Mgreer316
      • 5 yrs ago
      • Reported - view

      Mr. J I would be leery as well if eero was doing everything I needed. Thankfully, the hardware as performed flawlessly and consistently for me from the momebi bought it 9 months ago. But the software is missing important capabilities that haven't been addressed for years. I can only believe it was due to a lack of resources. If so, hopefully this purchase will eliminate any obstacles in further software development. 

    • Mr_J
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Are Nick and his team still in charge?  🖱

    • Skeeter
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view
    • epo
    • 4 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Another not so positive story regarding the sale and situation: https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/5/18297619/amazon-eero-price-fire-sale-mesh-wi-fi-buyout

    I guess I should have sold mine when they kept prices grossly out of line with the competition.  Hopefully, Amazon has a viable strategy and won't kill it off.

Content aside

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