Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) Fails To Win The Bid For Fitbit: Facebook’s Is Unsuccessful To Establish A Position In Health Tech And Wearables Markets

Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) offered $7.3 for each share of Fitbit to establish a footprint in the health tech and wearables market. Its dreams are shattered with Google grabbing Fitbit by merely increasing the bid by $0.05 more for each share. Google paid $2.1 billion to take over Fitbit. In 2018, the total revenues of Facebook were $55 billion. Annual revenues of Fitbit are $1.5 billion, which is negligible for Facebook.

Google has no explicit goals in taking over Fitbit. With this takeover, Google plans to bring innovation in wearables. It will also develop products combining software, hardware, and AI to benefit people worldwide. Health-oriented apps of Google include Verily and Fit App. The company also entered a pact with a network of health facilities and hospitals – Ascension through which it collects and analyzes patient data.

In a blog post, Google defended the alliance with Ascension and said it would use the health information of patients to develop intelligent tools to help nurses, doctors to take care of the patients.

Twenty-eight million devices of Fitbit in use

Fitbit has established a footprint in the fitness trackers. Around 28 million fitness trackers of Fitbit are currently in use. However, Apple maintains a dominant position in the wearables space.

In 2014, Facebook took over Oculus for $2.3 billion to serve the niche of the VR gaming niche. However, its revenues are immaterial for the social media giant. Mark Zuckerberg, Chief Executive Officer of Facebook, said in an earnings call that interest for AR and VR is taking longer than anticipated. He further said the company has not developed any OS or developed hardware in the past.

Acquires Beat Games

Facebook recently said it is taking over Beat Games. Following the takeover, it will be merged with Oculus but will operate as an independent entity. Beat Saber will get support from Beat Games across all existing platforms. The VR rhythm game is available on Quest, HTC Vive, MSFT’s Windows Mixed Reality devices, and Oculus Rift. The spending on AR and VR across the world is expected to reach $18.8 billion in the year 2020. It is an increase of 78.5% from the current year.

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