Control4 sold through custom installers who wired the system into a house room by room. Once it was in, one remote or phone app ran the lights, the music, the TVs, the thermostat and the door locks. The Salt Lake City company wanted to bring the smart home to ordinary buyers, well before voice assistants made it common. Its 2013 listing was arguably the first IPO of a pure home automation company.

The Home's Operating System

William West co-founded Control4 in March 2003 with a goal of making home automation affordable for the mainstream. It began shipping products in 2005. Its controllers acted as the operating system of a home, tying together devices from many brands. Control4 sold mostly through a network of independent dealers who designed and installed each system. A feature called 4Sight let owners check on their homes from a phone or laptop while away.

Sixteen Dollars to Snap One

Control4 priced its IPO at $16 a share in August 2013 and listed on Nasdaq as CTRL. The stock closed its first day at $20.05, valuing the company above $500 million. In 2019 SnapAV, a supplier to the same installers, bought Control4 for about $680 million, or $23.91 a share in cash. The combined company took the name Snap One and went public in 2021. Resideo bought Snap One in June 2024 for about $1.4 billion including debt.

Cover: Puppeteer holding puppet on "go" board, Katsushika Hokusai. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a puppeteer working the strings (one controller for the whole home).