Thermostats aren’t really given much thought, unless of course you are beautifully designed like the Nest Learning Thermostat which was launched back in 2011, which basically has the ability to adjust itself after “learning” your habits. The device saw its second iteration in 2012, and last we heard, it was integrated into Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Well it seems that somewhere along the lines Nest managed to capture the attention of none other than Google, and according to a recent announcement from Google and Google’s Sundar Pichai, they have announced that they have acquired Nest for a cool $3.2 billion in cash. Nest’s founder, Tony Fadell, stated that the acquisition will not affect the day-to-day operations, nor will it change the branding.For the most part that is true of some of Google’s acquisitions, as we saw when the company acquired Nik Software where the Snapseed photo editing app has remained largely the same. It is unclear what Google plans on doing with Nest. After all home automation has never really been a path the company has taken in the past, but we guess now is as good a time as any to start! Nest’s vice president, Matt Rogers, also reassured users over privacy concerns, stating, “Our privacy policy clearly limits the use of customer information to providing and improving Nest’s products and services. We’ve always taken privacy seriously and this will not change.”