Smartwatch maker Pebble was in dire straits this past year. Despite the resounding popularity of their new wearables (which raised almost USD13 million on Kickstarter), a report surfaced earlier this month that the company was going to be sold to Fitbit.
However, a recent report also states that this deal would result in the cancellation of Pebble’s Time 2 and the Pebble Core.
While initial reports of the deal were mostly shaky, Bloomberg’s latest report on the matter seems to shed some light on this situation. According to Bloomberg, Fitbit’s reportedly sub USD40 million deal to buy over Pebble only encompasses the company’s software assets like the operating system, watch apps and cloud services. This means that Fitbit will not be buying over the company’s hardware nor will the fitness maker take on Pebble’s debts.
As a result, the rest of Pebble’s assets including product inventory and server equipment would be sold off separately. This is tragic news to Kickstarter backers who have pledged and purchased two of Pebble’s three brand new devices — the Pebble Time 2 and Pebble Core — as these products will be cancelled and refunds will be issued to Kickstarter backers.
For those who picked up the Pebble 2, however, should continue to receive their devices as this wearable has already started shipping to the company’s backers.
Do keep in mind, however, that this report comes from people Bloomberg says are “familiar with the matter” so it should be taken with a grain of salt. There has been no official statement from either Pebble or Fitbit yet, though Bloomberg did note that Fitbit declined to comment on this matter.
