Pebble is one of the most popular smartwatch manufacturer around, after bursting into the smartwatch scene with its Pebble smartwatch. It gained recognition when it launched its first Kickstarter campaign back in 2012 to fund their first smartwatch. Since then, the company has started multiple Kickstarter campaigns to fund their products, ending in record breaking funds. However, things haven’t been too good for the firm lately and it has now been reported that Pebble will be acquired by another smart wearable manufacturer, Fitbit. Fitbit is known for its fitness trackers and it also happens to be the global leader in the smart wearable market.
According to TechCrunch, Fitbit is set to acquire Pebble for a relatively “small amount” and will be paying between $34 and $40 million for the company, though the final figure has yet to be confirmed by either company. Once the deal is sealed, Pebble and its products will face closure but it will happen over a period of time. Assets being acquired by Fitbit includes intellectual property and software. Before this acquisition was reported, it was rumored that the watchmaker Citizen initially planned to purchase Pebble for $740 million back in 2015, which is more than 10 times the reported sum currently being offered by Fitbit. However, the deal failed and soon after, chipset manufacturer Intel proposed an offer of $70 million for Pebble, but Eric Migicovsky, the chief executive officer of Pebble declined it.
Pebble recently launched a couple of smartwatches in October after having held a successful Kickstarter funding round which managed to raise over $12 million for the company. However, even after having held many successful Kickstarter’s in the past, Pebble is currently facing financial problems and in March of this year, it laid off 40 of its staff, which accounted for 25 percent of its workforce. The company also resorted to debt funding and loans to keep the company afloat. Pebble isn’t alone in this as Fitbit is also facing its own challenges, having posted much weaker earnings for the third quarter of 2016. Fitbit has also lowered its earnings guidance for the fourth quarter of the year due to its weak sales.