Fitbit is buying Pebble, report claims
Health and fitness wearables maker Fitbit is buying smartwatch maker Pebble, The Information reports, citing three people familiar with the deal.
Pebble, which started out as a Kickstarter project in 2012, captured a portion of the smartwatch market early, before heavyweights such as Apple and Samsung launched their first watches. However, the company has been struggling financially, laying off a quarter of its workers in May 2016.
The Information doesn't have a price for the deal, but Engadget reports Fitbit is buying Pebble for a paltry $34 - $40 million, which is orders of magnitude lower than some previous offers Pebble has had on the table -- and refused.
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If you're a lover of Pebble watches, some of which have gotten good reviews here on Mashable, this is not good news. Fitbit is buying Pebble for its technology and IP; Pebble devices will likely be phased out post-acquisition.
After a period of incredible buzz in 2014, when Google launched Android Wear, and 2015, when Apple launched the first Watch, the hype around smartwatches has subsided considerably. Apple itself seems to be focusing on the fitness vertical with its Watch, and a recent IDC report said the smartwatch market is shrinking fast.
Topics Fitbit
Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
