Fitness wearable brand, Fitbit, is planning to buy smart-watch maker Pebble for $30-$40 million. According to the company, the acquisition includes the intellectual property and software as well as the shut down of Pebble’s product line.
A report in VentureBeat states that Pebble was one of the first smart-watch companies, bringing out its product in 2012, about two years before Apple released its iWatch. Pebble gained popularity after successful Kickstarter campaigns that raised $40 million, but could not help the company establish a strong financial standing.
Fitbit on the other hand is a well known fitness technology brand from the US which makes activity trackers, wireless-enabled wearable technology devices that measure data such as the number of steps walked, heart rate, quality of sleep, steps climbed, and other personal metrics. Media reports cite that Fitbit’s key interest is in Pebble’s software platform, PebbleOS, which has a large app catalogue and can be paired with both iPhones and Android devices. The acquisition of the software will enable Fitbit to create a diverse portfolio with a ecosystem of devices.
According to another report in Techcrunch, the enterprise had earlier got an acquisition offer from Citizen for $740 million and Intel for $70 million but Eric Migicovsky, CEO, Pebble had rejected both offers. Fitbit is now paying between $34 and $40 million for the company and is barely covering their debts. According to the media report, Pebble also laid off 25% of its workforce earlier this year.