On Thursday 14 January,
Google announced that its acquisition of Fitbit is
finally complete in a statement on
its blog.
The announcement was made by
Osterloh emphasizes, that the acquisition of the
wearables firm “has always been in regards to the devices, not data” in an effort to make clear
Google’s intentions with the acquisition of Fitbit.
Google seems to be forward to using the talents of the Fitbit team
to ultimately develop
Google's own wearable gadgets, much like how Google’s
acquisition of Nest enabled the corporate to refine its ecosystem of smart
home products.
Google has officially made commitments promising that Fitbit customers’
health
and fitness data won't be used for the aim of concentrating on advertisements,
and people commitments have been brought up within the release.
As well, Google reminds that Fitbit users will continue to have the choice
of
protecting fitness data on a Fitbit account whether or not they wish to share it with 3rd parties (like Google Fit) or not.
Google intends to keep its
Android APIs open for all tech developers that want to keep
making health and fitness trackers working with Android OS to keep the competition
in the wearable space alive.
Regardless of Google’s announcement on Friday, the
US Department of Justice
has provided the following assertion to some outlets relating to the very same
acquisition, which is apparently still present process some
Antitrust Division
investigations.
"The Antitrust Division’s investigation of Google’s acquisition of Fitbit remains ongoing. Though the Division has not reached a closing decision about whether to pursue an enforcement action, the Division continues to investigate
whether Google’s acquisition of Fitbit may hurt competition and consumers in the US. The Division remains committed to conducting this review as
thoroughly, efficiently, and expeditiously as possible."
Google, however, states that it was comfy moving forward with the announcement
regardless of the DOJ’s lack of a formed decision.
It cited period
of investigation is much previous a provisional period without an objection.
This is Google’s assertion according to the Android Authority:
"We complied with the DOJ’s extensive review for the past 14 months, and the agreed-upon waiting period expired without their objection. We continue to be
in touch with them and we’re committed to answering any additional questions.
We're assured this deal will
enhance competition in the highly crowded
wearables market and we’ve made commitments that we plan to implement
globally."
[Source -
Google Blog and
Android Authority]
