Google buys Fitbit for $2.1 billion

[Karlston]

Google buys Fitbit for $2.1 billion

Google says the move will bolster Wear OS and bring Google-branded fitness trackers.

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It's official: Google is buying Fitbit. The company announced the move in a blog post this morning, and reports say the deal is worth $2.1 billion.

 

Google's SVP of hardware, Rick Osterloh, posted an announcement of the acquisition on Google's blog, saying the move was "an opportunity to invest even more in Wear OS as well as introduce Made by Google wearable devices into the market."

 

This is the second time this year Google has made an acquisition aimed at bolstering Wear OS, having previously purchased an unknown technology from Fossil Group for $40 million.

 

"Fitbit has been a true pioneer in the industry and has created engaging products, experiences and a vibrant community of users." Osterloh continued. "By working closely with Fitbit’s team of experts, and bringing together the best AI, software and hardware, we can help spur innovation in wearables and build products to benefit even more people around the world."

 

As we wrote earlier in the week, Google is dead last in the smartwatch market thanks primarily to a failure of its supply chain. Its primary competitors, Apple and Samsung, both have their own system-on-a-chip (SoC) design divisions that are able to produce a custom chip design aimed solely at smartwatches. Designing an SoC for these ultra-compact form factors gives these companies a huge advantage in device performance, battery life, and compactness, which are all critical aspects of a smartwatch.

 

Google does not have its own chip-design division and instead must rely on Qualcomm, the mobile market's biggest chip maker. So far, Qualcomm has not shown significant interest in the wearables market and has only put out repackaged smartphone chips using aging technology. They have not been the slightest bit competitive with what Apple and Samsung are able to produce, so Wear OS devices are usually slow, large, and have poor battery life. Fitbit has just been using off-the-shelf ARM designs for its products, so this acquisition doesn't seem like it will fix Google's core wearables problem.

 

In terms of cost, Fitbit's $2.1 billion price tag is Google's fifth largest acquisition ever, after Motorola ($12.5 billion), Nest ($3.2 billion), Adsense ($3.1 billion), and Looker ($2.6 billion). The deal is expected to close sometime in 2020.

 

Listing image by Valentina Palladino

 

 

Source: Google buys Fitbit for $2.1 billion (Ars Technica)

 

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[Karlston]

Facebook reportedly was in talks to buy Fitbit before Google was

But Google offered twice as much

 

Google just bought Fitbit today for $2.1 billion dollars, but apparently the search giant wasn’t the only tech company circling — Facebook was purportedly also in talks to buy the fitness tracking firm before Google, according to a report from The Information.

It’s not entirely clear what happened with Facebook’s talks, but it’s likely the money played a big part. According to The Information’s report, Facebook was offering Fitbit roughly half of what Google ended up paying, which seems to have swayed the decision in Google’s favor.

 

Facebook’s interest in Fitbit may seem odd at first, but it tracks with the company’s recent forays into hardware. Between its Oculus virtual reality headsets, Portal smart speakers, and planned AR glasses, the company has a fairly large hardware portfolio that’s widely centered around wearable technology. And it’s easy to imagine a world where Fitbit smartwatches and fitness trackers would work as an accessory to a future AR or VR headset.

 

The company has also shown a particular interest in fitness tracking before: back in 2014, Facebook acquired Moves, a then-popular fitness app for Android and iPhone. Facebook would go on to shut down Moves four years later due to both a lack of users and a lack of ongoing development.

 

 

Source: Facebook reportedly was in talks to buy Fitbit before Google was Source: (The Verge)

[Karlston]

Google is buying Fitbit so it can make its own smartwatch

In a somewhat unsurprising bit of news, Google has announced that it's acquiring Fitbit, one of the most popular wearable manufacturers in the world, confirming reports from earlier in the week. In its own announcement to investors, Fitbit said Google paid $7.35 per share in cash, valuing the company at around $2.1 billion.

 

Google says the acquisition provides an opportunity to further its investment in the Wear OS ecosystem, including the potential to make its own wearable hardware in the future. Google already has a decent variety of hardware products, including the Pixel and Nest lines of devices, and wearables could be an important part of the ecosystem.

 

For Fitbit, the deal seems to be a necessity in order to stay afloat, as its devices have been falling behind in terms of market share. James Park, CEO of Fitbit commented on the deal, saying:

“More than 12 years ago, we set an audacious company vision – to make everyone in the world healthier. Today, I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved towards reaching that goal. We have built a trusted brand that supports more than 28 million active users around the globe who rely on our products to live a healthier, more active life (...). Google is an ideal partner to advance our mission. With Google’s resources and global platform, Fitbit will be able to accelerate innovation in the wearables category, scale faster, and make health even more accessible to everyone. I could not be more excited for what lies ahead.”

Google's Wear OS has had some trouble taking off, and just a few weeks ago, it looked like the Mountain View giant had given up on making its own hardware for that platform. The software itself hasn't received a ton of improvements over the years, but it seems like Google wants to change that, as a separate blog post states that it's "hard at work" on what's next. We'll have to wait and see how those efforts pan out.

 

 

Source: Google is buying Fitbit so it can make its own smartwatch  (Neowin)

[mood]

Google has completed its acquisition of Fitbit

 

 

Google has announced that its acquisition of Fitbit has been completed as of today. The Mountain View giant initially announced its plans to buy the wearable manufacturer in November 2019, but it had to face some regulatory hurdles.

 

The last, and potentially largest, one was approval from the European Commission in the European Union. The organization announced about a month ago that it had determined that the deal was not a threat to competition, thanks to a series of commitments made by Google. The company will have to continue to allow third-party wearables to have access to all of the same Android APIs as its own devices, including not only APIs already implemented, but any additions made for the next ten years.

 

Google also reiterated that the acquisition is focused on Fitbit devices, not its data. Part of its commitment to the EU included storing Fitbit user data in a "data silo" of sorts, isolated from any data Google can use for advertising. Additionally, Fitbit data can only be used by other Google services with the user's explicit consent. Fitbit users will also still be able to connect to third-party services they may be used to.

 

Fitbit CEO James Park also released a statement regarding the acquisition, reaffirming that the deal will allow the company to "innovate faster, provide more choices, and make even better products". For now, no new devices have been announced, but we can probably expect to see Google try to reinvigorate its wearable platform, Wear OS, in the future.

 

 

Source: Google has completed its acquisition of Fitbit