Google completes Fitbit acquisition for $2.1 bn amid antitrust concerns
Google has completed its USD 2.1 billion acquisition of
fitness-gadget maker Fitbit, a deal that could help the internet company grow
even stronger while US government regulators pursue an antitrust case aimed at
undermining its power.
Thursday's completion of the acquisition comes 14 months after Google announced a
deal that immediately raised alarms.
Google makes
most of its money by selling ads based on information it collects about its
billions of users' interests and whereabouts. Privacy watchdogs feared it might
exploit Fitbit to
peer even deeper into people's lives.
But Google wound up entering a series of commitments in Europe and
other parts of the world pledging it won't use the health and fitness data from
Fitbit's 29 million users to sell more ads. It insists it is more interested in
adding Fitbit to
its expanding arsenal of internet-connected products, which include
smartphones, laptops, speakers, cameras and thermostats.
This deal has always been about devices, not data, and we've been
clear since the beginning that we will protect Fitbit users'
privacy," Rick Osterloh, Google's senior vice president of devices and
services, wrote in a Thursday blog post.
Google is scooping up Fitbit a company that has sold about 120
million devices in 100 countries since its 2009 founding while it fights a
series of lawsuits filed by the US Department of Justice and state attorneys
general. The lawsuits allege Google abuses the power that it has amassed as the
owner of the world's most dominant search engine. The Justice Department's
lawsuit isn't scheduled to go to trail until September 2023.
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