Sources: Amazon tried to buy smart lock maker August Home for $100M, who later sold to Assa Abloy for $150M; Amazon focused on Amazon Key after being rebuffed
Priya Anand / The Information :
Context & Ripple Effects
August Home was already inside Amazon's delivery plans: a 2016 partnership paired August locks with Garageio so couriers could leave packages inside homes. When Amazon moved to own that chokepoint outright with a $100M offer, August said no — and sold to Assa Abloy, owner of Yale, for $150M in the acquisition announced last October.
The rebuff explains why Amazon doubled down on building rather than buying: Amazon Key became the platform layer, opening to third-party locks and rolling out keyless entry nationwide, while the lock itself stayed with a traditional lock conglomerate.
First-order effects
- Assa Abloy paid a 50% premium over Amazon's reported bid, taking control of the lock brand most associated with in-home delivery — and with it, the decision rights over which delivery platforms get API access.
- Amazon, locked out of owning the hardware, accelerated Amazon Key as an open compatibility play, expanding from a closed system to eight compatible smart locks within months.
Second-order effects
- Rival retailers now court independent lock makers instead: Level Home's launch included a Walmart in-home delivery partnership, showing that whoever misses out on Amazon's ecosystem can sell the same access to Walmart.
- Lock manufacturers gain pricing leverage as platforms compete for integration — Amazon's Key expansion and Walmart's Level tie-up both treat the deadbolt as the gateway asset worth subsidizing.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, smart locks consolidate under incumbent lock giants while delivery platforms fight over software integrations — splitting the market into hardware owners (Assa Abloy) and access networks (Amazon Key, Walmart-backed rivals).
- In-home delivery becomes a standards battle: the platform that controls the lock interface controls the last meter of e-commerce, which is why retailers keep acquiring or partnering for entry rather than renting it.
The trend: In-home delivery is turning the smart lock into contested infrastructure, with big-box retailers and platforms racing to bind lock makers into their ecosystems after Amazon's failed buyout showed the hardware won't simply be bought.