Google says it's closing the Fitbit acquisition:
Google's senior VP of Hardware, Rick Osterloh, announced Thursday that Google has closed its acquisition of Fitbit. The $2.1 billion deal was announced back in November 2019 and kicked off a regulatory review process from governments around the world concerned about Google's influence over the Internet and the data it can collect on users.
Normally, Osterloh announcing that "Google has completed its acquisition of Fitbit, and I want to personally welcome this talented team to Google" would mean Google has cleared its worldwide regulatory gauntlet. Google's announcement today is highly unusual since the Department of Justice has not yet cleared the deal. As the DOJ told New York Times reporter Cecilia Kang, "The Antitrust Division's investigation of Google's acquisition of Fitbit remains ongoing." Australian regulators also haven't announced a final decision on the merger. It seems particularly provocative for Google to do something like this while it is also dealing with a DOJ antitrust investigation.
When asked about the status of the DOJ's merger investigation, a Google spokesperson told Ars, "We complied with the DOJ's extensive review for the past 14 months, and the agreed-upon waiting period expired without their objection. We continue to be in touch with them and we're committed to answering any additional questions. We are confident this deal will increase competition in the highly crowded wearables market, and we've made commitments that we plan to implement globally."
However the legal issues work out, the announcement doesn't give away a lot about Google's future plans for Fitbit. Osterloh starts by praising Fitbit's existing lineup, calling out the Fitbit Sense smartwatch, the Inspire 2 tracker, and various Fitbit health metrics. Google doesn't make cheap fitness trackers, but the company's Google Fit app has a lot of overlap here in both smartwatches and health metrics. Google says it wants to "make health and wellness more accessible to more people" and "we're confident the combination of Fitbit's leading technology, product expertise and health and wellness innovation with the best of Google's AI, software and hardware will drive more competition in wearables and make the next generation of devices better and more affordable."
Additional coverage at Bloomberg, Android Authority, and Android Police
(Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Saturday January 16 2021, @05:40PM (2 children)
By "people" they mean advertisers. Although how much more narrowly they can target is mysterious and unclear. Maybe by "people" they mean health insurance companies.
I have noticed from having owned and played with fitbits that they generate vast amounts of generally completely ignored data.
I had a manager once who was very interested in the idea of his firewall logging all illegal or questionable activity and notices could be sent or something. But in the long run nobody cares that some PC in china is part of a botnet that tries common ssh root passwords, for example. For those who still permit non-key ssh and still permit authentication as root LOL.
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Saturday January 16 2021, @06:10PM (1 child)
Whether the mothership is Google or Fitbits, why people buy those surveillance devices is beyond me. My ideal fitness wristband is standalone, or connects to a computer or cellphone applications that works even if the machine isn't on the internet. Of course, in these days of cloudiness and dataraping, there is no such thing.
(Score: 2) by zeigerpuppy on Saturday January 16 2021, @06:46PM
try the Amzefit Bip, can set it up to connect only locally with Gadgetbridge on Android
(Score: 4, Insightful) by sjames on Saturday January 16 2021, @07:00PM (4 children)
The first time I read the headline I interpreted it as Google losing interest and killing it off before the deal even completed.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday January 16 2021, @07:15PM (3 children)
That's exactly what I thought too. Why would anyone use the term "closing" when they really mean "completing"?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2021, @07:23PM (2 children)
Closing the deal is a common phrase in USA, although it seemed a little ambiguous to me also.
To buy a house here, you first make an offer, once your offer is accepted by the seller, then any issues/conditionals (inspections, mortgage, etc) have to be satisfied. If the deal goes ahead, the final meeting with the hand-off of the paperwork and the house keys is called "the closing".
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Sunday January 17 2021, @05:43AM (1 child)
Sure, "closing a deal" and "closing" on a house are pretty common, but I've never heard of "closing an acquisition". That sounds like you're shutting down a newly-acquired company. Maybe this terminology sounds familiar to someone who works in corporate mergers & acquisitions, but for the rest of us, I don't think it is, even though it's the same kind of thing as "closing" on a house purchase or "closing a deal".
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday January 17 2021, @11:03PM
In this case, my confusion was just a matter of choosing what seemed to be the more likely of the two possible meanings based on track record...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by NateMich on Saturday January 16 2021, @08:16PM
Nowadays when I read about Google buying something, I just assume that it's dead to me.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fakefuck39 on Saturday January 16 2021, @11:19PM
>make health and wellness more accessible to more people
and a little electronic wristband does nothing to accomplish that. it helps you track it and make pretty graphs after you've already done the thing that makes you healthy and well. what all this crap does, is make people think health and wellness can be had with some new gadget. work out, eat right, and pop some pills if you choose - that'll make you well. a smartwatch is just a stupid gadget. do you need to know your heart rate? if you got energy to run faster, are you going to slow down because of a number on this watch? actually, you are, and instead of working out to your full potential, you'll feel satisfied that you've accomplished your goal. the goal should be when you feel you've worked out best you could at any given time. not a gadget displaying a number.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 17 2021, @03:08PM
Guess Google's counting on the Democrats not to give too large of a fine to one of their major funders.