Samsung buys US luxury home appliance maker Dacor

Samsung Electronics said Thursday it had acquired US luxury appliance maker Dacor, as part of its push towards a full production line of high-end, Internet-connected homeware.

The purchase of the California-based company is the latest in a series of acquisitions by the South Korean electronics giant in recent years -- including that of US home automation startup SmartThings in 2014.

A Samsung statement gave no details on the value of the deal to acquire Dacor, whose products include stovetops, ovens, ranges and refrigerators.

Samsung -- the world's top smartphone maker -- is also a leading home appliance manufacturer, producing refrigerators, washers and air conditioners.

It has been on a something of a buying spree in the United States, snapping up a handful of firms including cloud computing start-up Joyent in June.

Samsung has been searching for ways to bolster profits beyond its key smartphone business as growth in the global handset market continues to slow.

It has rolled out a growing number of wireless devices or Internet-enabled home appliances in a move towards the nascent market for the Internet of Things, in which household appliances and electronic devices are all inter-connected.