The fitness band maker, Fitbit, has acquired certain personnel and intellectual property rights from technology startup Pebble, it announced on Wednesday. The assets acquired by the nearly 10-year-old Fitbit are tied to software and firmware but wont include Pebble’s hardware products.
The deal will include the hiring of Pebble’s software engineers while some of the intellectual property assets will include Pebble watch’s operating system, cloud services and watch apps, according to Bloomberg.
“With basic wearables getting smarter and smartwatches adding health and fitness capabilities, we see an opportunity to build on our strengths and extend our leadership position in the wearables category,” said James Park, CEO and co-founder of Fitbit in a statement. “With this acquisition, we’re well positioned to accelerate the expansion of our platform and ecosystem to make Fitbit a vital part of daily life for a wider set of consumers, as well as build the tools healthcare providers, insurers and employers need to more meaningfully integrate wearable technology into preventative and chronic care.”
According to Fitbit, the acquisition will “facilitate the faster delivery of new products, features and functionality while introducing speed and efficiencies to develop the general purpose utility consumers value in a connected device.”
Pebble, which laid off 25 percent of its staff earlier this year, has been struggling lately, affected by smartwatch industry shipments that dropped over 50 percent in Q3.
On a blog post from Wednesday, the company noted that it would be officially shutting down operations and “no longer promoting, manufacturing or selling devices.” Customers who were part of the Kickstarter program will now receive a full refund within 4-8 weeks, the company stated.
Known as a fitness wearable company for much of its existence, Fitbit launched its own smartwatch this year in the Blaze, a rival to the Apple Watch. Current athletes, like Dallas Mavericks forward Harrison Barnes, is an outspoken proponent of the new piece of technology, outfitting his teammates with the smartwatch prior to the 2016-17 season. In August, he told SportTechie how technology like Fitbit has helped take his career to the next level.
“I’ve always been interested in technology and there’s a natural connection between technology and basketball,” he said. “I’m constantly looking take my game to the next level, so when the opportunity came up for me to partner with the market leader in wearable fitness tracking, it made sense. Now my Fitbit Blaze is a big part of my routine. Being able to see my fitness data in real-time lets me adjust my workouts on the fly and get the most out of every session.”
Last month, Fitbit also partnered with NBA 2K17 to promote healthy living with gamers and encourage 10,000 steps a day in exchange for in-game rewards.
