The corporation Alphabet, better known as the owner of Google, has submitted a billion bid for Fitbit. $ 2.1 billion is worth the label of fitness wristband manufacturers. Converted, the Google mother pays $ 7.35 per share, both companies said.
Fitbit went public in 2015. At that time, with an issue price of $ 20 per share - but in the meantime, the price had fallen to the level of three dollars.
With the resources and Google platform, Fitbit will be able to bring about rapid innovation, said co-founder and chief James Park. The data from Fitbit would not be used for the placement of Google ads, the companies promised. Nevertheless, whether data is stored separately, as once in the acquisition of the smart home specialist Nest by Google, the companies were open. Meanwhile, Nest has been completely incorporated into the hardware division of Google.
What Google promises to buy
The business of Fitbit ran bumpy recently, because the pioneer from two sides under pressure: In the more lucrative market of computer clocks, the company from San Francisco could not keep up with the Apple Watch. For cheap fitness bands that include steps and calories burned, Chinese rivals like Xiaomi and Huawei are more popular. In the second quarter, Fitbit posted a loss of nearly $ 36 million on sales of $ 313.6 million.
Google is developing the computer clock-aware Wear OS. It is derived from the Android system, which dominates the smartphone market. For computer clocks, the Android camp but could not catch up with the Apple Watch, although devices from different manufacturers are on the market. Also missing in the Google range own portable devices, so-called wearables.
