Fitbit is in advanced talks to acquire rival Pebble, several people close to the negotiations told the Financial Times.
According to the report, Fitbit is expected to pay a low price for Pebble, which has struggled to expand its smartwatch business after raising over USD 40 million through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. While founder and chief executive Eric Migicovsky was hoping to sell for about USD 200 million, Fitbit is paying far less than that, the paper's sources said.
Pebble was a pioneer in the smartwatch market, introducing its first product two years before the Apple Watch. The deal will give Fitbit added technology to grow in a new area of wearables. Its main interest is in Pebble’s software platform, PebbleOS, which has one of the largest app catalogues of any wearable device and can be paired with both iPhones and Android devices.
