Google acquired Fitbit after announcing the deal in 2019 and completing it in January 2021.
Fitbit was founded in 2007 by James Park and Eric Friedman. It became widely known for wearable devices that tracked steps, activity, sleep, and heart rate, helping make consumer fitness trackers mainstream. Google announced plans to buy the company for approximately $2.1 billion in November 2019.
The transaction took more than a year to close because regulators examined its potential effects on competition and health data. Google completed the acquisition on January 14, 2021, and said Fitbit users’ health and wellness data would not be used for Google ads.
Fitbit is sometimes confused with Garmin, another major wearable and fitness-device company. Garmin remained a separate company and was not the subject of this Google acquisition.