Silver Spring Networks acquires Greenbox in smart grid deal

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Jonathan Gay, chief technology officer and founder of Greenbox Technology Inc.
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Silver Spring Networks Inc. acquired Greenbox Technology Inc., to better compete with other smart grid companies in the home energy management race.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The product from San Bruno-based Greenbox is customer-facing software that will allow electricity customers to see how much energy they’re using in real time, how much it costs and choose options to reduce power use. In multiple studies, access to this type of information results in changed behavior and lower utility bills.

Redwood City-based Silver Spring Networks makes hardware software and communications networks for the electric grid that allow utilities to better manage the electric grid.

Greenbox Technology was founded by a team of software developers responsible for creating the Flash Player, which enabled animation and movies on computers. Flash is now owned by Adobe Systems Inc. Greenbox was founded in 2007 and funded by angel investors Rob Burgess and Betsey Nelson, former CEO and CFO of Macromedia Inc. respectively.

San Mateo-based eMeter Corp., a competitor of Silver Spring Networks, recently released its own home energy management software application. And Liberty Lake, Washington-based smart grid company Itron Inc., announced Sept. 15 a partnership with home energy management company OpenPeak Inc., of Boca Raton, Florida.