Google buys Fitbit for $ 2.1 billion

The web giant has just formalized in a blog post the acquisition of the company specializing in activity trackers. Google now wants to use these new resources to give a boost to its Wear OS platform.
The announcement was expected, it is now official. Rick Osterloh, Google's hardware manager, has announced that the search engine has gotten Fitbit for $ 2.1 billion.

Google would use Fitbit's resources to develop its own smartwatch

The company will continue its business for the moment but will be fully integrated into Google's activities, under the banner Made by Google, which includes all devices designed by the brand. We can imagine a closer relationship later to the image of Nest, which remained an independent division before being completely swallowed by Google.

Rick Osterloh sees in this acquisition "  an opportunity to invest even more in Wear OS as well as to introduce Made by Google devices in the wearable market  ". Google is often willing to launch its own smartwatch but its operating system for connected watches is still shunned by the general public.

A few months ago, the search engine had already grabbed some of the technology developed by Fossil for $ 40 million.

The experience acquired by Fitbit in the field of activity monitoring but also in the design of smartwatches should be used in this project and could accelerate its development. Google Fit, the health platform of the California giant, should also benefit from technologies developed by the manufacturer.

With this acquisition, Google wants to assert itself on the wearables market

In a separate press release, Fitbit wants to reassure its customers and explains that the health and fitness data collected by its devices will remain confidential and will not be used by Google for its advertising.

The buyout should be finalized in the year 2020, allowing Google to hit Samsung, the current number two in a connected watch market exploding with 15.9% of global sales. Apple is first with a 46.4% market share in the second quarter of 2019.

Source: The Verge