In what would be considered one of the fastest acquisition deals in the face of antitrust concerns, Google has finally acquired watchmaker Fitbit. The two companies commenced acquisition talks over 14 months ago but the bid was faced with serious scrutiny by regulatory authorities such as EU’s European Commission over privacy concerns.
The final acquisition means the road has been cleared for the deal to happen but obviously, Google had to make a series of “binding commitments with global regulators” that ultimately quelled the privacy concerns. It comes in a record time considering how long it took before the T-Mobile and Sprint merger was allowed to sail through last year.
The acquisition deal will see the search giant dole out a little more than $2 billion for the renowned wearable manufacturer established in 2007. Google says it is planning to work closely with Fitbit to “create new devices and services” helping you “enhance your knowledge, success, health, and happiness.”
In his official blog post announcing the completion of the acquisition, Google’s Senior VP of Devices & Services Rick Osterloh didn’t elaborate on the tech giant’s future hardware plans. However, the post explicitly mentioned the recently released Fitbit Sense and Inspire 2 which seems to suggest their successors could very be in the pipeline.
Also, there was no indication if Google will try to blend its own Wear OS with the Fitbit OS software platforms going forward. But then, it is too early to phantom the duo’s future plans for the partnership.
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