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Google Acquires Unspecified Smartwatch Technology and Employees From Fossil for $40 Million

posted by martyb on Friday January 18 2019, @09:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the time-for-a-change dept.

takyon writes:

Google just spent $40 million for Fossil's secret smartwatch tech

Google and watchmaker Fossil Group today announced an agreement for the search giant to acquire some of Fossil's smartwatch technology and members of the research and development division responsible for creating it. The deal is worth roughly $40 million, and under the current terms Fossil will transfer a "portion" of its R&D team, the portion directly responsible for the intellectual property being sold, over to Google. As a result, Google will now have a dedicated team with hardware experience working internally on its WearOS software platform and potentially on new smartwatch designs as well.

[...] According to Wareable, the technology is a "new product innovation that's not yet hit the market," Greg McKelvey, Fossil's executive vice president of chief strategy and digital officer, told the publication. It's unclear what exactly that innovation is, or why exactly Google is so eager to buy it, although $40 million is a drop in the bucket for Google when it comes to acquisition costs.

Hologram watch.

See also: Fossil shares jump after Google agrees to buy smartwatch tech for $40 million

Also at AnandTech.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 19 2019, @02:25AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 19 2019, @02:25AM (#788513)

    Unintuitive as it may be, big brother tracking us all via such devices is in our interest. Just imagine how much easier crimes would be to solve if people all had GPS trackers. Sure if society turned evil it would present a huge problem, but it also provides the means to suppress such social movements as would cause it to be misused.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday January 19 2019, @02:49AM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Saturday January 19 2019, @02:49AM (#788525) Journal

    The murderers could just wear old school watches.

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    • (Score: 3, Touché) by jasassin on Saturday January 19 2019, @03:25PM

      by jasassin (3566) <jasassin@gmail.com> on Saturday January 19 2019, @03:25PM (#788652) Homepage Journal

      The murderers could just wear old school watches.

      Any self respecting murderer just switches their smartwach into IncognitoMurder mode.

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