Fitbit sports wristband company buys Pebble smart watches

Fitbit sports wristband company buys Pebble smart watches

Fitbit disburses about 37 million euros for the 'software' and the engineers of the 'startup'

Fitbit, the leading company in sports bracelets , has confirmed the purchase of Pebble, a startup born on the web of micromanagement Kickstarter and that put on the market the first smart watch that was connected to both Android phones and iPhone. Fitbit has disbursed a figure, still unconfirmed, close to 40 million dollars (about 37 million euros) for the  software and engineering team, which, although integrated into the company, will not produce more watches.


At the beginning of the year, Pebble received an offer from the Intel technology company worth 70 million dollars (about 65 million euros), but rejected it. Now change hands for something more than half.

The Pebble Time 2, Pebble Core, and Pebble Time Round models, which were in the production phase, will never reach the market, but the company has committed to returning the money of all customers who made donations to reserve one.

The purchase of Pebble by Fitbit puts an end to one of the great stories of Silicon Valley. When he was born, Pebble broke all records of funds raised on Kickstarter. He got 10.2, 20.3 and 12.8 million dollars for each of his watches.

He also stressed that he managed to overcome problems that the big ones did not know how to face: his designs were finer, the battery lasted several days, and they were resistant to blows and water. In addition, it won the hearts of developers for its ease in creating new applications.

"The most basic wearables are becoming increasingly sophisticated and smart watches are beginning to add health and wellness options. It was logical the opportunity to join forces to maintain leadership, "said James Park, CEO of Fitbit.

The founder of Pebble and CEO, Eric Migicovsky, plans to become part of Y Combinator, the most recognized incubator of the technology scene to help others who begin an adventure similar to yours.

The convergence between bracelets and watches is a reality. And the competition is fierce . Fitbit sales have fallen 52% in the last quarter, despite the launch of news and its remarkable effort to improve the designs to look like fashion accessories and not own devices of a professional coach. Shares have suffered a 30% drop in the last year, although they maintain the hope of recovering during the Christmas season.

One of the most outstanding characteristics of Fitbit is the social one: it has managed to create a simple application that, when connecting with contacts, urges to improve the physical condition of the client in front of his relatives and to work with clear objectives.

Fitbit wants to reinforce its proposal to be able to compete with the Apple Watch. Apple CEO Tim Cook said last week that the sales of his watch "go out of the box," but gave no concrete figures. Nor is it expected that the company will do so until the next presentation of results or a conference in which new features are presented, probably at the beginning of March.

Google remains in a secondary level in this battle to conquer the consumer's wrist. After a strong boost in 2015 with Android Wear, 2016 has been a year of scarce news. Only Fossil, Tag Heuer and Michael Kors have presented new products, in the highest segment. Unofficially, the hardware division of Google has confirmed that it will renew software and hardware in 2017