Google parent Alphabet Inc is in talks to acquire U.S. wearable device maker Fitbit Inc. Although there's no concrete confirmation, if sources are to be believed, the deal will take place in all likelihood. The news follows a report that appeared last month that Fitbit was in the process of exploring a sale and has been looking for buyers.
However, it is still not known how much Google has offered to acquire the wearable device maker. Google has been trying to get a share of the wearable device market pie and the bid to acquire Fitbit might be a move in that direction.
Google had played a key role in the smartphone market competing with the likes of Apple, Samsung and the China-based Xioami but the wearable devices section still remains to be explored properly by the tech giant.
Although the company has been making an effort to make its presence felt in the wearable market with its wear OS operating system with support from the likes of Fossil, LG and TicWatch, it has largely struggled to taste success, with Apple way ahead in the race. Even Samsung, one of the leading players in the Android market, has preferred to stay away from the Wear OS system in favor of its Tizen operating system.
Earlier this year, Google paid $40 million to Fossil to acquire a smartwatch technology but it still remains unknown what the technology exactly was.
The company has been reportedly contemplating to release a Google-branded smartwatch and if the Fitbit acquisition falls in place, the company might finally get to penetrate the wearable device market in a bigger way. In fact, there were also reports that Google had in 2016 planned to launch a smartwatch but the company finally scrapped its ambitions. However, in 2017, it acquired a section of the smartphone engineering team of HTC to work on its Pixel phones.
That said, Fitbit has been a successful player in the wearable device section and has been increasingly focusing on its fitness trackers, given the growth in fitness freaks for whom health is fast becoming an integral app in smartwatches. Both Fitbit and Google have declined to comment on the development.
