It's official: Google is buying Fitbit for $2.1 billion

It’s official: Google is buying Fitbit.

Early Friday morning, Google announced on its official blog that it will acquire US-based fitness company Fitbit. “This agreement underscores our belief in how important wearable tech has become, and it’s also an exciting opportunity for Wear OS,” explained Google’s Senior VP of Devices and Services. “We’re looking forward to collaborating with Fitbit to bring the best of our smartwatch platforms and health applications together, and enabling our partners to build the next generation of wearables.”

The search giant is acquiring Fitbit for $7.35 per share in cash, valuing Fitbit at a value of approximately $2.1 billion. The transaction is expected to close in 2020.

This acquisition couldn’t come at a better time for either company. Due to a lack of updates and support from Google, the company’s Wear OS platform just hasn’t been up to par with other wearable leaders like Apple and Samsung. Fitbit has also had its fair share of speed bumps over the years, and reportedly explored a sale back in September after cutting its 2019 revenue forecasts in July.

The news of the Google-Fitbit acquisition follows earlier reports of the agreement from earlier this week.

Don’t miss: Making sense of the Google-Fitbit acquisition

In the blog post, Osterloh said the company sees an opportunity to invest in Wear OS and introduce Made by Google wearable devices with this Fitbit acquisition. “… we will be transparent about the data we collect and why, said Osterloh. “We will never sell personal information to anyone. Fitbit health and wellness data will not be used for Google ads. And we will give Fitbit users the choice to review, move, or delete their data.”

We’ve long praised Fitbit for its affordable, approachable fitness devices, as well as its efforts in making fitness and health a social experience for users. Notably, Google has lacked success in the fitness and social realms, making this acquisition somewhat of a no-brainer.

What can we expect out of the Google-Fitbit acquisition? You can read our analysis of the deal here, but expect Fitbit’s hardware and software to be more intertwined with Google’s existing ecosystem. We wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years we finally see a Google-branded smartwatch or other fitness wearable running Wear OS.

Google needs all the help it can get to compete with major players like Samsung and Apple, and it’s well on its way with this Fitbit acquisition.