Who Owned Fitbit Before Google? the $2.1 Billion Backstory

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Who owned Fitbit before Google? Learn about the company’s history and the key players before the $2.1 billion deal.

Introduction

This is Fitbit, one of the first companies that introduced fitness tracking devices to the world, and it has been through a lot of changes since then. Based in the US, the company was established in 2007 and began to attract public attention as a start-up producing wearable technology intended for health and wellbeing tracking. Fitbit was a success story building itself up from a start-up to facing its share of problems before Google purchased the company in 2021.

Who owned Fitbit before Google?             

Who Owned Fitbit Before Google? $2.1 Billion Backstory

Until Google acquired Fitbit in January 2021, the company was co-founded and run by two individuals, namely James Park and Eric Friedman. He & his wife founded Fitbit in 2007 & managed it over the years up to the time it went public in 2015 through an IPO. The company also had added investor support over the several past years.

Founding of Fitbit

Fitbit co was started by James Park in April 2007 and Eric Friedman. The pair identified the possibility of incorporating miniaturized sensors and wirelessly transmits to develop a gadget, would look at the ongoing physical action and health characteristics.

Who Owned Fitbit Before Google? $2.1 Billion Backstory

Their first product was, of course, the Fitbit Tracker which was showcased at the TechCrunch 50 conference in September 2008 with over 2,000 pre-orders an unusually good outcome. From this point, Fitbit becomes faster and stronger towards its initiation as a health technology company in people’s homes.

Growth and Market Expansion

Fitbit’s rise was meteoric. By 2011, it had set its presence as a national brand in the United States covering its products in major retail malls including Best Buy and Walmart. Further development of products that offer an extension of its target market continued, and new features like heart rate monitors and sleep trackers were established. Fitbit had its IPO in June 2015 at $7.75, now valued at approximately $4.1 billion.

Fitbit made purchases primarily to expand its line of goods and services during its autonomous years. For example, to supplement its deficiency in fitness coaching services, it paid roughly $33 million to buy FitStar in March 2015. Fitbit was acquired with the intention of expanding its business beyond activity trackers to include health solutions.

Challenges and Competition

However, shortly after attaining its initial successes, Fitbit had to contend with new rivals in the realms of both veteran technology corporations and fresh new entrants to the smartwatch industry. New products such as smartwatches that came into the market coupled with affordable smart fitness trackers from manufacturers like Xiaomi started to cut into Fitbit’s market share.

In November 2016, the company weakened its financials, and in January 2017 it was acquired by Fitbit for a meager amount of $23 million to enhance its smart-watch business. However, the above move was not sufficient to avoid a decline in its revenues because the customers were shifting to different smart devices that they could multi-task.

The Acquisition by Google

In November 2019, Alphabet announced that it had agreed to buy Fitbit, an American wearables maker, for $ 2.1 billion. This acquisition was done in January 2021. Google aimed to improve its position in the wearables market and to increase its chances of fighting against key competitors such as Apple and Samsung acquiring Fitbit.

Who Owned Fitbit Before Google? $2.1 Billion Backstory

The move also signified the final developmental phase of Fitbit as it transitioned from being an independent company after over a decade of specifically dedicated business operations. Some concerns before the merger with Google were how Fitbit’s features would blend into the Google ecosystem or how it would be modified.

Conclusion

Before Google, Fitbit belonged to its creators, James Park and Eric Friedman together with other investors who funded the organization through several rounds. The company was transformed from a start-up company that specialized in manufacturing and selling fitness tracking devices to a public limited company that has now become internationally famous for its innovations in the field of health technology.

The Google acquisition means the finish of the Fitbit experimentation as an independent brand; however, it also means becoming a part of one of the world’s largest technology powers. There is still a lot that is uncertain as Google goes on to invest in wearables via the Fitbit brand. This has brought unanswered questions on how wearables fit into the future of health technology and several consumers as they promote social fitness tracking.

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