Google has announced completion of Fitbit acquisition

GOOGLE has announced that its acquisition of wearable fitness device Fitbit is complete.

The announcement that the multifunctional Fitbit watch is now officially part of Google was made by Rick Osterloh, Senior Vice President of Devices and Services for Google.
The purchase, which had been announced in 2019, was made for an approximate €2.1 billion dollars.
The US authorities are still investigating the purchase, while in Europe it went ahead after accepting measures to guarantee that it would not further increase the hold that Google has over the digital publicity market, following fears that data from the Fitbit could be used to personalise advertising.
In the release, Osterloh emphasized that the acquisition “has always been about the devices, not data” to clarify Google’s intentions.
Google has made commitments promising that Fitbit users’ health data will not be used for targeting ads, and they will still have the choice of keeping fitness data on a Fitbit account whether or not they want to share it to third parties (like Google Fit).
Meanwhile, James Park CEO, President & Co-Founder of Fitbit, told users, that it was an “incredibly exciting moment for us as a company and for our Fitbit community of users around the globe.”
Since 2009, more than 120 million Fitbit devices have been sold in more than 100 countries, with the main aim of making “everyone in the world healthier”.
He went on to say that “becoming part of the Google family means we can do even more to inspire and motivate you on your journey to better health. We’ll be able to innovate faster, provide more choices, and make even better products to support your health and wellness needs. On our own, we pushed the bounds of what was possible from the wrist, pioneering step, heart rate, sleep and stress tracking. With access to Google’s incredible resources, knowledge and global platform, the possibilities are truly limitless.”
Meanwhile, he promised that everything people love about Fitbit will remain the same and assured users that strong data privacy and security protection will be maintained.
“Google will continue to protect Fitbit users’ privacy and has made a series of binding commitments with global regulators, confirming that Fitbit users’ health and wellness data won’t be used for Google ads and this data will be kept separate from other Google ad data” he said.

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