Google Acquiring Fitbit for $2.1 Billion

Google is acquiring Fitbit for $2.1 billion, the companies announced on Friday. Google plans to expand its investment in the Wear OS ecosystem with the acquisition of Fitbit. The company is acquiring Fitbit for $7.35 per share in cash.

The acquisition is expected to close in 2020, subject to customary closing conditions.

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Google recently spent $40 million to buy Fossil’s smartwatch tech, and the Fitbit acquisition is the company’s latest investment in the wearables business.

“Fitbit has been a true pioneer in the industry and has created engaging products, experiences and a vibrant community of users. 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,” said Rick Osterloh, the Senior Vice President of Devices & Services at Google.

In a separate announcement, Sameer Samat, the Vice President of Product Management for Wear OS said: “We’re looking forward to collaborating with Fitbit to bring the best of our smartwatch platforms and health applications together, and enabling our partners to build the next generation of wearables.”

Google’s acquisition of Fitbit is quite significant: Wear OS smartwatches have been failing to compete with Apple Watch and the software platform has been falling behind Apple’s watchOS. The acquisition of Fitbit could lead to Google eventually making its own Pixel-branded smartwatches, and maybe even combine the Fitbit platform with Google Fit to be able to better compete with the Apple Watch.

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Conversation 32 comments

  • RonV42

    Premium Member
    01 November, 2019 - 9:31 am

    <p>I know what not to get my kids for Christmas now. They were asking for Fitbit's and with Google owning this company I will look elsewhere. </p>

  • Stoicjim

    Premium Member
    01 November, 2019 - 9:58 am

    <p>Out with my Fitbit, in with Garmin.</p>

    • ronh

      Premium Member
      01 November, 2019 - 12:52 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#485515">In reply to Stoicjim:</a></em></blockquote><p>I went with a Garmin Vivoactive 3 last year (from a Blaze) . I really like it</p>

    • jim.mcintosh

      01 November, 2019 - 1:37 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#485515">In reply to Stoicjim:</a></em></blockquote><p>Garmin's worth a look. I remember getting sneered at by a Garmin user a while back who asked If my Ionic was counting real steps or was I just swinging my arm.</p>

    • earlster

      Premium Member
      01 November, 2019 - 4:09 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#485515">In reply to Stoicjim:</a></em></blockquote><p>I'm on my 2nd Garmin and am loving it, Forerunner 630 and then 645. The 630 was a bit weak on 'smart watch' stuff and clearly more of a running/biking/etc watch. The 645 is great with all the notifications, etc. that make it 'smart' for me, but I have never played in depth with an Apple or WearOS watch.</p>

  • Skolvikings

    01 November, 2019 - 10:18 am

    <p>I will remain cautiously optimistic that Google won't completely screw-up with Fitbit. Hopefully they treat it like Nest and keep the product line going separately until it makes sense to start to merge them. After all, buying the brand doesn't do much good if you alienate Fitbit's existing loyal customer base. (Also, I hope they retain iOS support, as I have an iPhone.)</p>

    • wolters

      Premium Member
      01 November, 2019 - 11:12 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#485517">In reply to Skolvikings:</a></em></blockquote><p>Same. I used and supported WearOS for several years until I just needed a better battery and more functionality, so I went with the Galaxy Watch which is currently the best all round smartwatch for Android. This gives me hope that we may get an excellent SmartWatch with Google Assistant. Will watch this with caution. </p>

  • csalese

    01 November, 2019 - 10:20 am

    <p>They will promptly turn this into the dumpster fire that Nest has become.</p>

    • Skolvikings

      01 November, 2019 - 10:25 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#485518">In reply to csalese:</a></em></blockquote><p>Just curious, how so? I don't own any Nest products, but I know people who do, and they continue to like them.</p>

      • wolters

        Premium Member
        01 November, 2019 - 10:39 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#485520">In reply to Skolvikings:</a></em></blockquote><p>I have Nest Hello, Yale Lock and the new Nest Home Max with an option for a camera. All of it works so very well and I am quite happy with it. </p>

      • csalese

        01 November, 2019 - 3:45 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#485520">In reply to Skolvikings:</a></em></blockquote><p>Google is in the process of turning Nest into a brand and merging the technology into the mother ship, converting Nest accounts into Google accounts and retiring Works with Nest. The products themselves haven't suffered much, yet, but they haven't had much innovation recently either and competitors have been catching up. From what I can see you'll soon have Nest speakers, Nest Chromecast, Nest Phone, Nest Watch… Honestly Google is just as pathetic as Microsoft when it comes to branding and marketing. ARS Technica has a nice run down here: <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/05/nest-the-company-died-at-google-io-2019/&quot; target="_blank">https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/05/nest-the-company-died-at-google-io-2019/</a></p&gt;

  • Stooks

    01 November, 2019 - 10:24 am

    <p>Ahhh nice. Moving FitBit to my list of products to never buy again.</p>

  • Rob_Wade

    01 November, 2019 - 10:39 am

    <p>There goes the neighborhood. I hate Google. I hate Google. I hate Google. Just as much as I hate Apple.</p>

    • ghostrider

      01 November, 2019 - 11:33 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#485524">In reply to Rob_Wade:</a></em></blockquote><p>Don't tell me, you hate Apple and Google, but you love Microsoft. Yes? </p>

    • Jeffsters

      03 November, 2019 - 2:05 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#485524">In reply to Rob_Wade:</a></em></blockquote><p>Hate a company ? Seek help.</p>

  • james_rainey

    01 November, 2019 - 11:31 am

    <p>I've wished for a marriage for Fitbit tracking and Wear OS. Wondering what Garmin will do. They seem to be growing market share, this could be a bit of a setback, unless Google fumbles this.</p>

  • ghostrider

    01 November, 2019 - 11:36 am

    <p>Well, if this isn't a pre-cursor for Google to finally release a Pixel watch, I don't know what is. Based on Fossil and now Fitbit, Google could release a killer timepiece, but they can't really leave it too much longer – if they don't have a product out next year to kickstart WearOS over again, it could be a problem.</p>

  • Nic

    Premium Member
    01 November, 2019 - 11:42 am

    <p>This is likely the only way that Fitbit would continue to be a brand. It's not that their products were not good, rather that they are up against the behemoth that is Apple in this space. It will be interesting to see what happens going forward. It would be nice to see some improvements in the quality of the Fitbit offerings (things have really been hit or miss the last few years). The downside is, of course, having all of the metrics captured by Fitbit now residing in the fracking of data that is the Google strategy. </p>

    • jim.mcintosh

      01 November, 2019 - 1:34 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#485541">In reply to Nic:</a></em></blockquote><p>You hit the spot with "hit or miss".</p><p>But scarred the stuff out of me with Fitbit data now going to Google.</p>

  • red.radar

    Premium Member
    01 November, 2019 - 12:13 pm

    <p>The fitbit press statement quoting that they have 28million active users was interesting. </p><p><br></p><p>That seems low….. Curious to how many Apple watch users exist… for comparison sake. </p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

  • nicholas_kathrein

    01 November, 2019 - 12:28 pm

    <p>Google needs 2 things. 1. I watch SOC @ 7nm that is at least in the same ball park at Apples SOC. Current SOCs are the worst and only Apple has been investing in this. Google really needs to work a deal with <span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">Qualcomm&nbsp; where even if Google pays many many hundreds of millions to keep Qualcomm funding a top of line watch SOC they need to do it. Maybe Google can get a fee back on every chip sold to help pay it back but either way it's not about making money. It's about having a top flight watch/ wareable for your eco system. Some people pick Apple just bacause of the watch. 2. They really need to invest in the watch software. It seems to be an after thought. They really should work to take the best both companies software to make the best experience. </span></p>

  • hellcatm

    01 November, 2019 - 12:29 pm

    <p>I think they should keep using and updating Fitbit OS and get rid of WearOS. Fitbit OS has better battery life and is snappier. </p>

  • dcdevito

    01 November, 2019 - 12:29 pm

    <p>What could go wrong? LOL. </p>

  • proesterchen

    01 November, 2019 - 1:05 pm

    <p>I have yet to see a Fitbit device that didn't break down during their warranty period.</p><p><br></p><p>Which I guess means there's an easy way to save some serious cash if they want to.</p>

  • Pierre Masse

    01 November, 2019 - 1:06 pm

    <p>You cannot have a complete ecosystem without wearables. They finally got it.</p>

  • rmlounsbury

    Premium Member
    01 November, 2019 - 2:02 pm

    <p>I'm glad that they will keep Fitbit as a separately run division ala Nest. I curious to see if Google will, at some point, have Fitbit swap out their current OS that powers their devices with an Wear OS version developed by both Google &amp; Fitbit. </p><p><br></p><p>I owned one Wear OS watch and ended up hating it and returned it. The only two options in the smartwatch category to me are Apple Watch and Fitbit watches. </p><p><br></p><p>Everything that Apple is doing in the health space does make me want to give Apple Watch another try. Of course, that also means re-committing to Apple for mobile again. The only thing I didn't like about Apple's fitness software (last time I used it) is that it was too reliant on filling those circles and not giving me enough hard data about what I'm doing to fill those circles. Unlike Fitbit which gives you solid details behind the activity tracking. </p>

  • Sprtfan

    01 November, 2019 - 8:30 pm

    <p>Saw this somewhere else but thought it was funning and wanted to share.</p><p><br></p><p>apple watch : "It looks like you've fallen or are about to have a heart attack" &lt;summons help&gt;</p><p><br></p><p> Google FitBit : "It looks like you've fallen or are about to have a heart attack" &lt;targets ads for cardiologists and/or funeral homes&gt;</p><p><br></p>

  • codymesh

    01 November, 2019 - 9:28 pm

    <p>yet another toy for Google to play with and dispose of.</p>

  • MikeGalos

    02 November, 2019 - 7:24 am

    <p>Well, that means we'll be downloading our data, killing our Fitbit accounts and destroying our devices.</p><p><br></p><p>Anyone got any advice on a good water-resistant fitness band or a good Internet scale from a company that doesn't sell your data for a living or lock you into their ecosystem?</p>

    • Jayant D'Souza

      02 November, 2019 - 2:23 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#485690">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p>Garmin has really great fitness devices. I strongly recommend them.</p>

      • Jeffsters

        03 November, 2019 - 2:04 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#485747">In reply to JDSouza:</a></em></blockquote><p>and hard to lock you into their ecosystem when there isn’t one! </p>

  • chaad_losan

    04 November, 2019 - 4:16 pm

    <p>Another company to join the google graveyard.</p><p>RIP Fitbit! Good luck shoving android into those devices.</p>

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