Google is after FitBit

Not exactly payment company but couldn't miss it! Alphabet parent Google has offered (or plans to offer) to buy FitBit. The fitness tracker maker went public in 2015 at a $4.1B valuation, but has since seen its market cap reduced to about $1.5B — a decline of over 60%. Even at the reduced valuation, the potential purchase would still be a top 10 acquisition for Google. Check my post form couple of months ago, where you can find top acquisitions made by Google and their M&A strategy.

The Reuters report says,

"There is no certainty that the negotiations between Google and Fitbit will lead to any deal,"

and

"the exact price that Google has offered for Fitbit could not be learned,"

but apparently an offer was made yet.

Fitbit made a name for itself in wearables by producing a popular, cheap, simple fitness tracker. Since 2009, the company has produced simple clips or bracelets that log your activity and sync it to an app. Xiaomi, Huawei, and others eventually started muscling in on Fitbit's turf, though, and the company responded by buying Pebble and producing devices that worked more and more like a full-blown smartwatch. Fitbit faces fierce competition in the smartwatch market, too, though, as over the past few years Apple has made fitness a core part of the Apple Watch. It's no surprise that Fitbit's revenue has been down for three straight years, as the company is getting squeezed at the low end by China and the high end by Apple.