Samsung sets to become more than one of the biggest device makers around as it acquires Joyent, a cloud hosting specialist described by some as one of the industry's best kept secrets.
The financial details of the deal are not available.
But why would the likes of Samsung want to buy Joyent? The company offers hosting services akin to those offered by Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure. It also helps companies build private clouds, and boasts the likes of Adobe and Telefónica as clients, and hosts the popular web, mobile and IoT architecture development platform Node.js.
In other words, it is actually an ideal match for a S. Korean giant wanting to reduce dependency on a stalling mobile device market. Post-acquisition Joyent will operate as an independent subsidiary, with Samsung acting as an "anchor tenant" for Joyent cloud solutions, helping it increase in global datacentre footprint.
According to Bloomberg Samsung bought no less than 12 companies in 2015 for a total of $456 million. These include payments company LoopPay and smart home developer SmartThings.
