Following last week’s report that Fitbit is close to buying Pebble, more details of the rumored acquisition have leaked out.
Fitbit will pay less than $40 million for Pebble, according to sources speaking to Bloomberg. Fitbit is said to be interested in Pebble’s software engineers and testers, as well as intellectual property relating to Pebble’s watch operating system, apps, and cloud services.
When it comes to hardware, the remainder of Pebble’s product inventory is expected to be sold off separately. While Pebble has started shipping Pebble 2 units (shown above) to customers that backed them on Kickstarter earlier this year, it’s expected that the still-unshipped Pebble Time 2 and Pebble Core will be canceled and refunds will be issued to those that backed them.
An official announcement is expected soon. Once the deal is done, Pebble’s offices will close. Fitbit has reportedly sent job offers to around 40 percent of Pebble’s current staff, mostly software engineers. Meanwhile, Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky is expected to join startup incubator Y Combinator. It’s unclear if Fitbit will keep the Pebble brand around.
While nothing is official quite yet, the increasing number of reports make it look like a Fitbit purchase of Pebble is likely. That’s a big deal in the wearable space, as Pebble made a pretty big splash with its original smartwatch in 2012, earning $10.2 million on Kickstarter. The company has struggled as of late, though, as it’s been facing fierce competition from the likes of Fitbit, Garmin, Google, Samsung, and Apple.
What do you make of this Pebble news? Have you ever owned a Pebble smartwatch?
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