Fitbit Is Close to Buying Software Assets from Pebble

[adambrenecki]

This is really sad; Pebble had probably the best products on the smartwatch market, and I'll be disappointed to see them go.

They were the only smartwatch manufacturer that could claim anything close to 10 days of battery life. They were the only smartwatch manufacturer that made devices that were water resistant and really meant it. (That is, they're all rated to 3-5 ATM and tested the same way regular watches are, you can actually use them in chlorinated or salt water, and they didn't try to claim that your "water resistant" device's warranty was void if you got it wet.) They were the only smartwatch manufacturer that made devices that had an always-on display that's actually any good (with the possible exception of the just-released Gear S3; I've yet to see one in person but it sounds like Samsung are getting there). It's a small thing, but they were also the only smartwatch manufacturer that didn't take themselves too seriously, filling their UI with cute icons and animations that made the watch fun to use. All that, and their products were significantly more affordable than some of their competition.

[DrScump]

"They were the only smartwatch manufacturer that could claim anything close to 10 days of battery life."

My Suunto can go weeks between charges (with GPS not in use). Even with full feature usage, it's supposed to go 200+ hours.

[Skunkleton]

Shame. I really liked my Pebble Time, and I was looking forward to buying a Time 2. The pebble is the only smart watch that is still a good watch.

[darklajid]

Agreed. I still like my Time (did yours die?), but I am one of the affected PT2/Core backers (and Pebble advertising other KS projects like hell means that I also backed a GPS strap/addon for the now DOA PT2. Yay).

It feels like I'm starting to like a market and it dies. Like watching Firefly after the show was long cancelled. Back to bare wrists for me, alternatives do not exist. :(

[tw04]

You should try a Garmin.

[outericky]

If this goes through, best of luck to everyone from Pebble and Fitbit. Hardware is tough, but we all need it.

[dragonmum]

> Hardware is tough, but we all need it.

As the 2016 market has shown, "need" is perhaps too strong a word for a smart watch.

[WillPostForFood]

Can anyone think of an example where you take two failing tech companies, merge them, and it works out?

[robbiet480]

Anyone have a good alternative to the Pebble Core that runs some kind of open OS (Linux/Android) with 3G built in a very similar form factor? Will take suggestions from AliExpress even... Wish I would have just gotten my Pebble Core instead :/

[Vexs]

You could strap a ESP236 to a bluetooth or NRF module- those things have a lot of processing power, wifi, etc, and add a little battery. They've got good power consumption, are cheap as hell, and should work.

[mathgeek]

A lot of the signals here are pointing to a result of Pebble getting as much as they can at this point without anyone having to actually fulfill undelivered promises. Sad, but such is the way of backing things on kickstarter and equivalent sites.

[dpandey]

The key focus of this acquisition seems to be the acquisition of assets (read 'IP'). Fitbit has had a rough time battling Jawbone in court (though ironically Jawbone has been the sufferer in the market while Fitbit revenue keeps going up). I feel that has made them cautious about IP and this is the second acquisition (after Coin) that's been purely focussed on acquiring IP so that:

1. Others can't acquire and sue them

2. They can sue others if needed

Other than IP, it's hard to justify their spend in acquiring the company (they already have hardware and software/app).

[woah]

What have pebble and coin done to get this IP? Just had enough patent lawyers around to patent stuff they happen to be working on ("Method of having an e-ink watchface")?

[rotoole]

Lord why? 40M for engineers who will quit as soon as possible? What is the point?

《Edit》honestly I read the whole article, please explain how this makes sense from a fitbit perspective.

[unwiredben]

Typically, key engineers from the acquired company will have some sort of bonus tied to staying for a length of time. When LG bought the webOS group from HP, many got bonuses payable after one year, for example. That gives them time to maybe convince some to stay, and to get the value needed for their own internal teams to take over the technology.

[kevin_thibedeau]

I imagine everyone with stock is quite pissed after losing out on the Citizen deal. A promise of a bonus can't compare to that.

[kriro]

I think the Pebble brand has decent value. It is positioned as the "first" smartwatch for a niche of users that you can build around. No idea how valuable exactly the brand is as figuring that out seems like witchcraft to me.

[hayksaakian]

is there data or statistics about this topic? i'm sure someone with access to this data could determine if market impact and recruitment costs would make it worthwhile

[flylib]

seems like the majority of money isn't going to the engineers but other outstanding expenses, they are just taking a salaried job at Fitbit

[blackoil]

Microsoft should buy pebble. This will give a nice kick to wearables program

[dpandey]

It doesn't look like Wearables are a priority for Microsoft at all. Given the recent slump in that market, I don't think they're getting FOMO either.

[banjoriver]

"The deal will mean the Pebble stock held by employees is worthless, two of the people said. The money will instead go to debt holders, vendors, some of its main equity investors, and Kickstarter refunds for the Time 2 and Pebble Core orders, the people said."

[greglindahl]

This is a classic "no money falls on common" situation. Debt holders are early in line; investors have preferred shares with liquidation preferences.

Very interesting how they're treating their $33mm kickstarter obligation. [Edit: sorry, I wasn't sure what had been fulfilled already, thanks skuhn]