As per Reuters, Google parent company Alphabet is supposedly in talks to buy fitness and health tracking wearables company Fitbit. Reuters is reporting that Alphabet has even gone ahead to make an undisclosed offer for the $1.1b valued company.
Details are still sketchy on the potential deal and as with many of such rumours, it may not even see the light of day.
This acquisition assuming genuine, would bode well for the two tech companies. Google has not yet put out any of its own wearables, notwithstanding Wear OS’ unbalanced spot in the wearable market. Techies have always thought that Google would put out a Google made Pixel smartwatch you know like the Samsung Gear and Apple Watch but till date there has been no indication that one wold be launched anytime soon.
Fitbit, which helped pioneer the wearables drive, has been partnering with insurers in the area of health data among other acquisitions but this hasn’t helped the company’s revenue outlook very much even as some analysts now believe that with a flurry of health wearables out there, the company’s main value may now be in its data.
Fitbit cut its 2019 income forecast according to Reuters in July, which was primarily driven by the dismal sales of its Versa Lite smartwatch. The watch was valued at $160 and $200 for the full version but is unable to store music. This has made the company somewhat streamlined in its products at a time when many wearables are hitting the market faster than predicted.
But this isn’t the first time that the health fitness tracking company has been rumoured to be up for sale and since nothing happened then, we won’t dwell too much on this until maybe either makes an official statement. Several new outlets including Reuters have reached out to both companies but haven’t heard back from either of them.
According to CCS Insight, The wearables market is set to treble in size in the next five years and become worth over $25 billion, according to industry analyst firm, CCS Insight. Its new global forecast for wearable devices — which includes smartwatches, fitness trackers, augmented and virtual reality headsets and wearable cameras — indicates the market is set to grow from 84 million units in 2015 to 245 million units in 2019.
“Smartwatches will remain the main source of wearables revenue, delivering over $9 billion of sales in 2015,” states Ben Wood, CCS Insight’s Chief of Research. “Those who labelled Apple Watch a failure need to think again. In its first quarter of sales it accounted for around $1 billion of revenue and we expect sales to continue to rise, particularly in the all-important fourth quarter.”
