What Fitbit’s acquisition of Pebble means for the wearables market

Fitness tracker company Fitbit is reported to be buying smartwatch brand Pebble for between $34m and $40m, according to The Information, a move which would see Pebble absorbed into Fitbit’s wider wearable roster. Sources, however, say that Fitbit is going to pay a lot less than that.

Kickstarter darling Pebble made crowdfunding history a year ago when it raised a record $20.3 million to produce its next-generation Time smartwatch.

The purchase price is paltry, basically enough to cover Pebble’s debts to suppliers, but little more. The reason that Fitbit is close to buying Pebble for a smaller fee is that the fitness tracker company has been in a tough place financially.

“Eventually”, Bajarin said, “the major players in fitness wearables will be Apple and the Google environment”. It’s now apparent that regardless of this help, Pebble isn’t able to run as a successful business.

Shares of San Francisco-based Fitbit rose 0.7 percent and closed at $8.42 on Thursday after word began to circulate that the company meant to buy Pebble. But CEO of the company, Eric Migicovsky rejected the offers.

While Pebble led the way for the wearable technology market and has a strong following among the early adapters, it hasn’t had the “mainstream appeal” that Android Wear devices and Apple Watches had later on. With that in mind, what would you like to see from a device with both Fitbit and Pebble DNA? Fitbit will largely be acquiring Pebble’s assets, which include intellectual property and software.

The last couple of years has not been easy for the smartwatch industry, as it has experienced a 51 percent decline in its sales.

In early 2015 the company smashed crowdfunding records by raising $500,000 for its second smartwatch, the Pebble Time, in just 17 minutes – doubling that after 50 minutes. New owner Fitbit has its own issues too.

Leading up to the deal Pebble was suffering from staff cutbacks and delays to the launch of its latest smart watch. Pebble has built up an nearly cult following over the last few years – and there are more than 13,000 apps available on the platform.

Pebble’s watches can get to almost ten days with an always-on display, and even the heart rate-enabled Pebble 2 handled four days on a charge, which is where current Fitbits aim for.