Two years after purchasing Withings, Nokia has sold it back to Withings co-founder Éric Careel. Mr. Careel was one of the interested buyers when Nokia decided to put up the health tech division for sale.

Nokia purchased the French company for about $190 million in 2016. It later rebranded it Nokia Health along with existing products. However, the business was struggling and Nokia announced a strategic review of the arm in February of this year.

When Nokia announced it was going to sell the business, a number of big names were linked to the deal. Google’s Nest was one of the interested buyers alongside Samsung. There were also two other French bidders including Éric Careel who eventually sealed the deal with Nokia.

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Details of the deal weren’t disclosed but that should surface later. We also expect the “new” owner to announce a new direction for the company.

(Via)

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Nokia (Not HMD Global) purchased Withings a few years ago and renamed it as Nokia Health. Following the acquisition, it has released a couple of products and rebranded others. They include the Nokia Go activity tracker, Nokia Steel HR smartwatch, and Nokia Body Cardio to name a few. Latest reports say Nokia wants to do away with the division.

According to 9to5Google, a memo leaked in February revealed the health division is struggling. Hence, the reason for wanting to sell it off. Google is said to be one of the bidders for the division.

It is reported that Nest is actually the one interested in purchasing Nokia Health. However, Nest announced earlier this year that it would no longer be a separate Alphabet Inc. subsidiary and will be merged back with Google. So, technically it is Google doing the bidding.

There are some other unnamed companies interested in the acquisition. Two of them are French companies and the other is a non-European company. Unfortunately, Google may have issues with the acquisition.

The French government wants it sold to a French company as the country is trying to develop AI. There is also the concern for data protection for Europeans. Google is aware of these developments and is also pulling its own strings. It has established a new AI research center in France and is increasing its workforce in the country.

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If Google acquires Nokia Health, we may see Wear OS get better at health monitoring and be able to hold its own against Apple’s  Watch Series. It will also be cool to get a Pixel-branded smartwatch with focus on health.

(Source)

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The Withings Steel HR smartwatch was launched last year. Now that Withings is acquired by Nokia Health, the Steel HR has been relaunched as a Nokia device. Nokia Health has confirmed on its Twitter handle that it is now receiving pre-orders of the Nokia Steel HR. The company has also stated that the shipments of the pre-ordered units will begin in the next month.

The Nokia Steel HR is a hybrid device that looks like an analogue watch but possesses capabilities of a smartwatch. It is equipped with a heart rate tracker and it features a small digital screen inside its round dial that displays all the notifications and health data.

Read More: Nokia Steel Smartwatch Gets A Limited Edition Available In Two New Colors

The Steel HR can track various kinds of activities like walking, running, swimming, sleeping and more. Compared to the original Steel HR, its “new” edition by Nokia Health features a sapphire glass for shielding the heart rate sensor in order to deliver water resistance of up to 50 meters.

Nokia has also brought some software improvements to the Steel HR like enhanced algorithm for accurately measuring heart rate. The Nokia Steel HR promises a battery life of up to 25 days which is impressive compared to the other smartwatches like Apple Watch and timepieces running on Android Wear 2.0.

The smartwatch is made up of steel and it comes in color choices like Black or White. As far as strap options are concerned, users can choose from options such as leather, silicone and woven wristbands. The 36mm Steel HR is priced at $179.95 and the 40mm variant carries a pricing of $199.95. Customers who pre-order it now will be able to receive by early December.

(source)

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