Google Will Likely Acquire FitBit

Wearables have been disappointing in the West, Apple and Fitbit are among the last ones standing. But what if Alphabet acquired Fitbit?

It's a wild week for earnings with positive sentiment at the stock market. Today, Google's parent company Alphabet has reportedly made a bid for Fitbit.

Reuters first broke the story.

FitBit's stock is up 23.4% so far today based on the news. Both companies are currently in negotiations, but given the way, this is being reported, it seems it's rather likely to pass. If this happens, Google will be well-positioned to compete with the Apple Watch as both tech giants head more into healthcare.

This is also the sort of acquisition which anti-trust watchdogs would be alerted to. Silicon Valley is eating itself. That story doesn't end well in how the U.S. is able to compete with China in the decades to come.

Think about it though, it really makes sense as Google pivots into hardware and smart phones. Google does not currently sell any own-brand fitness trackers or smart watches, but its Wear OS platform runs on smart watches sold by several third-party brands, such as LG, Huawei, and Fossil.

The exact price that Google has offered for Fitbit could not be learned. But this move would change the future of fitness tracking wearables forever. With Google Assistant so well produced, Google could embed superior AI-voice interactions into products like fitness trackers and smart watches.

The AppleWatch is a healthcare monitoring tour de force but lags FitBit in the sleep tracking department. Google doesn't have a great history with hardware but its Pixel phones show incredible promise.

Like TechCrunch reminds us, Google in early 2018, also closed its acquisition of large parts of HTC’s design division. We’ve also seen numerous rumors about Google building a Pixel smartwatch over the years. Google is being more aggressive now in its war on the future against the likes of Amazon and Apple as its future in advertising does not appear as bright as it once was.

Google has a history of failure too here so it's a tricky sport. Even Samsung, a major Android manufacturer, has avoided Wear OS in favor of its own Tizen operating system. It could risk killing the incredible Fitbit products that are embraced by consumers each year. As a fitness enthusiast, that would be my chief worry with this news.

Got to feel bad for hardware startups. Fitbit hasn't exactly had it easy. The HealthTech company announced that it was looking for a buyer earlier this year, after four years of decline following a disastrous public listing in 2015. In this the grand goodbye?

When Silicon Valley eats itself the consumer loses a bit of loyalty to these products. How does one actually compete against Apple and the AppleWatch? Go cheap or go home it appears.

Who loves Fitbit? Not that many people to be honest. Apple accounted for 35.8% of global smartwatch shipments in the first quarter of 2019, while Samsung came in second with 11.1% of shipments. Fitbit landed in fourth, accounting for 5.5% of worldwide smartwatch shipments during that time period.

What will Google become if it's able to grab up FitBit for its own use? Will we see a better fitness experience? Could Google ever manage an acquisition of Spotify? Now that would be an interesting story. Spotify has done amazing creating one of the most powerful audio platform companies in recent times integrating podcasts into its core product.

Google has made a significant push into developing its own hardware in recent years through its Pixel-branded products. It's still too soon to say if Google will ever make it in hardware to be honest, but Google Assistant is a winner and this could be another ecosystem for it to operate in to help users stay motivated about their exercise and real-world activity levels and sleep quality. Google has made FitBit an offer, I just don't see FitBit not accepting it. It's more or less a done deal already as of October, 28th, 2019.