Technology Google owner Alphabet wants to buy Fitbit, report says

Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. has reportedly made a formal offer to buy Fitbit, sources told Reuters.

© Provided by Future Publishing Ltd. Fitbit

But, the existence of an offer doesn’t suggest an acquisition is imminent: “There is no certainty that the negotiations between Google and Fitbit will lead to any deal,” according to the Reuters report.

Given how long we’ve waited for Google to release its own heavily-rumored Pixel Watch, it’s not a surprise that the company is also interested in the fitness hardware market. After years developing WearOS, it’s no stranger to wearables software, either – though given Fitbit’s reliance on its own proprietary OS, it would be up to speculation whether a Google-owned Fitbit would switch over.

Here's how Fitbit can help fix Wear OS

Now that Google's acquisition of Fitbit is official, the question is what the search giant will do with it. When the news broke on Friday, Google's Rick Osterloh said the company sees the deal as an "opportunity to invest even more in Wear OS, as well as introduce Made by Google wearable devices." For the time being, then, it looks like Google plans to leverage Fitbit's expertise to another push into wearables. Earlier this week, we speculated on some of the ways in which Google's purchase of Fitbit would be bad for wearables. However, there are a lot of things Google could learn from Fitbit to make Wear OS a compelling platform.

The acquisition would also follow the tech giant’s experience with phones after it contracted HTC to help build its Pixel line of phones – and then in early 2018, bought HTC’s Pixel ateam for $1.1 billion to transition everything in-house. Google isn’t afraid to spend serious money to buy the right hardware expertise.

This is the first we’re hearing of a deal, and there’s no indication how far it’s progressed or how likely it will be to go through, but we’ll follow up on the story when more news emerges.

• Here are the best Fitbits right now

Via Yahoo News