Google announced that they have acquired the wearable band company Fitbit for $2.1 billion. Following this news, it has also been reportedly been disclosed through a source closely related to this case that the social media giant Facebook has also been keenly interested in this deal and was offering $1 billion or half of it for the acquisition. However, no concrete statement has been released by any of the parties in this regard.
This might seem uncharacteristic of Facebook at first but they have already been acting on expanding their hardware portfolio through venturing into many other projects such as Oculus virtual headsets, Portal smart speakers and planned AR glasses. If they had been successful in acquiring Fitbit, they would have worked on providing their users with wearable and more AR experience. And what more, they have also acquired a fitness app called Moves back to 2014.
Fitbit was the first company that introduced the smartwatch in 2017 and it had also been popularizing the fitness bands around the world. But it has failed to keep up with the dynamic nature of the market and its rivals including the tech-giant Apple who has managed to go far ahead of Fitbit in this fast race of technology and innovation.
In the survey by the IDC, a US-based market intelligence provider it has been revealed that Fitbit is now placed in the fourth position in the ranking of top smartwatch companies, led by Xiaomi, Apple and Huawei.
Thus, that was how Google was able to acquire them. Though the reason for siding with Google rather than Facebook has been kept secret and no true claims have been founded yet except the price one.
Google has also long been diversifying its portfolio by boosting its hardware offerings through its different lines of smartphones, tablets and connected speakers. Now the users are clearly anticipating what more Google can provide them after this successful deal.
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