SquareTrade wants to expand its services. The company, which is owned by insurance company Allstate, has acquired iCracked, a phone repair company that offers on-demand repair of phones and tablets, and currently operates in as many as 60 cities in the U.S. and Canada.
Currently, if you have SquareTrade protection for your device and it breaks, you often have to ship it to the company — meaning you will spend at least a few days without your phone or another device. That can be difficult for those who might rely on their tech for things like work or communicating with their friends and family. Thanks to the iCracked acquisition, it’s possible this could change; SquareTrade may be able to offer on-demand repairs within a day of your device breaking in the first place.
SquareTrade has been trying to make the repair process more convenient through services like SquareTrade Go, which allows customers to set where and when they get their device repaired. It’s likely the iCracked Acquisition will help make services like SquareTrade Go more widespread and even more convenient.
“We are excited to join SquareTrade, a company that shares our commitment to delivering high-quality on-demand service to customers,” A.J. Forsythe, iCracked CEO, said in a statement.
Allstate acquired SquareTrade in 2016 for $1.4 billion but we don’t yet know exactly how much SquareTrade paid for iCracked, but given the fact that the company already owns SquareTrade, it does seem like a somewhat natural acquisition. We will have to wait and see if iCracked ends up being simply rolled into SquareTrade, or if it continues to operate as its own business. We would be on the former, though it will likely take time for that to happen.
“Today’s consumers rely on connectivity to run their lives, and they can’t afford to wait for device repairs,” Ahmed Khaishgi, president and co-founder of SquareTrade, said in a statement. “With our recent acquisition of PlumChoice, SquareTrade is uniquely positioned to protect the hardware and software that power our customers’ connected devices.”
iCracked isn’t the only company SquareTrade has recently acquired. Only a few months ago, the company bought out PlumChoice for $30 million. PlumChoice provides cloud support and other technical support for both consumers and for small businesses.
