The year will soon come to a close, but that does not mean that the recent trend of buying up companies will take a break until next year. This time around we have reports than the popular smartwatch maker, which for many kicked off the smartwatch craze back in 2012, is up for sale. Fitbit, the fitness tech giant, is said to be in talks to purchase Pebble for a measily $34 to $40 million. This news isn’t that much of a surprise; it has been common knowledge for a while that Pebble was not making enough money to stay relevant. It was also recently announced that at least 25% of its workforce would be laid off.
Pebble had the opportunity to be bought by Citizen for a reported $740 million back in 2015, and comparing that sum to what Fitbit is offering, the shareholders at Pebble must feel pretty sad right about now.
Pebble will more than likely be phased out as a company, while Fibit uses its tech and patents to flex its muscle in the smartwatch market. after all, Pebble was pretty popular among users even though it was never a large company.