Utility metering vendor Itron has announced it is dropping $830m on the acquisition of smart grid mesh network specialist Silver Spring Networks. The two companies had long been rivals in the advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) market, of which Silver Spring has made more unit installations. Itron will hope the acquisition allows it to secure key markets, in particular North America. The deal marks one of the most significant consolidations in the IoT sector this year. The offered price represents a premium of 25% over Silver Spring current value, although it is in line with other technology acquisitions. Both vendors had been developing proprietary iterations of a wireless mesh network technology to connect their devices. Both are also members of the Wi-SUN…