I would not have expected them to be a target for Google. While they may have more money than the U.S. Treasury, $3.2 billion (in cash, no less). I really don't think Google is looking at the screen on the Nest as a target for advertising :) So they must have some other idea in mind. If you look at the wide variety of acquisitions (especially those of device manufacturers) that Google has been making in the last year or so, the one common thread seems to be that these are connected devices – part of the anticipated and much ballyhooed Internet of things that John Chambers so loves to ramble on about. Still, it's not at all clear to me why it's to Google's advantage to own big chunks of the Internet of things.
Maybe it's much simpler than I'm imagining. Maybe Google's huge pile of cash is burning a hole in their corporate pocket, and they're just going to buy lots of things everything...
Because they are in the business of selling information. The more information they have, the more valuable. Targeted Ads are just a part of that. Knowing the temperature and settings in as many homes as possible, appliance usage, whatever it is, can be combined with the other information they already have on you to build a pretty complete picture that can be mined and sold. This started way back when companies would just sell their client lists.
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