Google Officially Purchases Fitbit for $2.1 Billion USD (UPDATE)
The deal is expected to close next year.
UPDATE (November 1, 2019): After making an offer earlier this week, Google‘s parent company Alphabet has officially bought Fitbit for $2.1 billion USD.
“Google is an ideal partner to advance our mission,” Fitbit CEO James Park recently told Engadget. “With Google’s resources and global platform, Fitbit will be able to accelerate innovation in the wearables category.”
Details surrounding what the purchase will mean for both companies is scarce as the decision is still fresh, however Google’s head of devices and services Rick Osterloh has already hinted that Google plans to use Fitbit as its new wearables division. He stated that this will be an “opportunity to invest even more in Wear OS as well as introduce Made by Google wearable devices into the market.”
The deal is expected to close sometime next year as long as Fitbit’s shareholders approve.
ORIGINAL STORY (October 28, 2019): Google‘s parent company, Alphabet, has made an offer to acquire Fitbit, which made Fitbit’s stock rise over 18 percent before it was halted earlier today. The wearable tech company’s stock resumed and ended at 30.5 percent for the day, calculating over $330 million USD to its market cap for an overall $1.5 billion USD.
Although the details of the offer are scarce, the deal would bring Google’s Alphabet company into the wearable fitness tracking space full-force, competing against Apple’s Apple Watch. Google already has its own smartwatch operating system called Wear that companies like Fossil use, however it does not currently make its own smartwatch products. So for Google, this deal would mean an already-established way to enter the physical wearable tech market.
Strategy Analytics deduces that Apple took over half the global smart watch market in terms of units sold during 2018. Google and Fitbit’s partnership would have a long way to go, but the partnership has the potential to bring Fitbit back into the fold.
In other tech news, Kik Messenger App is apparently no longer shutting down.
Fitbit shares resume and surge more than 30% after Reuters reports that Alphabet is in talks to buy the companyhttps://t.co/lqfUo6tig7 pic.twitter.com/4zrR8ryWq6
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) October 28, 2019
