Schneider Electric is buying Shelly: what it means for local control

Schneider Electric, the French company that owns Square D, agreed on September 24, 2026 to launch a takeover offer for Shelly Group. Schneider intends to offer EUR 70 a share in cash, which values Shelly at about EUR 1.2 billion. The offer has not been made yet: the two companies have signed an investment agreement setting out its terms, and Shelly says in the same announcement that no offer has been registered or published. Schneider has to file it with the Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission first, and Shelly expects that clearance at the end of November or the beginning of December 2026. Shelly’s two founders hold about 57% between them, and they are leaving on different terms: Svetlin Todorov (about 28%) is selling his stake to Schneider outright, while Dimitar Dimitrov (about 29%) has agreed to tender his shares and reinvest part of the proceeds alongside Schneider. Schneider expects to close by the first quarter of 2027. It then aims to buy out the remaining shares and take Shelly off the stock market, though both companies word that as an intention rather than a settled outcome, and it needs regulatory approval.

I run more Shelly gear than any other brand, so I read this one closely.

Short version: Nothing changes for a Shelly device you own today, and nothing in the announcement says anything about local control, the local API or Home Assistant. The promises are about people and offices, and they run for three years. Keep buying Shelly on its merits, and keep your devices on the local Home Assistant integration rather than on anything that depends on Shelly’s cloud.

What was announced

Schneider’s stated reason is energy. Its release talks about combining “Shelly’s software-led home energy platform” with its own business across homes, retrofits and small commercial buildings. Read that as metering relays, energy monitors and anything that sits in a breaker panel, which is where Schneider already sells.

What stays local, and what doesn’t

Nothing about how Shelly devices work changes on the day a deal is signed. Your relays and plugs keep their firmware, and Home Assistant’s Shelly integration talks to them directly on your network. It doesn’t go through Shelly’s cloud.

The questions are all about the future, and the announcements don’t answer any of them:

• The local API. It’s the reason Shelly is the default Wi-Fi relay for Home Assistant. No one has promised to keep it. No one has said they’ll change it either.
• Firmware direction. Future firmware is where a new owner would make changes. That could mean more features behind the cloud app, or an account requirement at setup.
• Pricing and range. Shelly’s value comes from cheap, small, documented hardware. A company built around electricians and installers might trim the DIY end of the range, or might not.

If anything changes, I’d expect it to show up in firmware release notes first. Nothing in this announcement suggests a change is planned.

What I’d do

If you run Shelly already. Nothing. Keep the devices on the local integration, and read the release notes before you take a major firmware update after the deal closes. Hold off on automatic updates if you’d rather check first.

If you’re about to buy. Buy on the same basis as before. The Shelly vs Sonoff relay comparison and best local in-wall relays still stand. A Shelly relay bought today keeps working locally regardless of who owns the company, as long as you don’t need a future feature.

If you want a hedge. The Gen4 relays and plugs also run on Zigbee, which puts them on your own coordinator and outside any vendor’s app. The Shelly Plug US Gen4 switches to Zigbee with five presses of its button. For a Z-Wave house, the Shelly Wave 1PM already sits on a protocol no cloud touches.

Does this change my picks?

Not today. The Shelly devices I run and rate highly stay where they are:

• Shelly Wave 1PM: 5 of 5.
• Shelly Wave 1PM Mini: 5 of 5.
• Shelly Flood Gen4: 4.5 of 5.
• Shelly Plus Wall Dimmer: 4 of 5.
• Shelly Wall Display XL: 4 of 5.

If a firmware release after closing moves a local feature behind the cloud, I’ll change the ratings and say so here.