Google buys part of Fossil's R & D for $ 40 million

[ad_1]

On January 17th, Google and Fossil announced a deal for the Mountain View company to buy some of Fossil's smart health connected watch technologies. Similarly, Google intends to embark the engineers responsible for these innovations.

The agreement in question represents no less than $ 40 million. Depending on the conditions in the document, Fossil will transfer a portion of its R & D team to Google. Clearly, the Mountain View Firm assembles a team dedicated to its Wear OS as well as smart health connected watch design. Fossil's experts have a great knowledge of the software architectures of the Mountain View company. However, the smartwatch manufacturer retains a team of 200 engineers in its laboratories.

As a reminder, the American group is responsible for smartwatch design for many brands (Diesel, Michael Kors, Giorgio Armani, etc.). A total of 14 brands trust him.

Google uses Fossil to gain importance in the smartwatch market

Stacey Burr, president of product management at Google's WearOS said in a press release:

"The addition of Fossil Group's technology and team to Google demonstrates our commitment to the wearable industry by enabling the creation of a diversified portfolio of smart watches and meeting the evolving needs of the consumer in search." vitality and on the move. "

Google seems to want to make his Pixel watch a success. The group has no doubt the ambition to compete with Apple on one of its favorite markets. The expertise of the manufacturer could allow him to fully master this combination of hardware and software.

An industrial history that repeats itself

For the watch manufacturer it's a big money back. The firm in difficulty for many years will be able to breathe a little. Moreover, the stock market welcomes this news with kindness. At this announcement, the stock jumped 8% before stabilizing a little above the average of previous days.

For its part, Google invests a drop of water from its huge treasure of war. The situation is very similar to Fitbit's takeover of Pebble for $ 40 million. As a reminder, Fossil had invested 260 million dollars to acquire Misfit in 2015.

[ad_2]

AB SMART HEALTH health home & BUILDING REVIEW