Google buys Fossil Group’s smartwatch technology for $40m
Fossil Group, an American fashion designer and manufacturer, will sell Google its IP for smartwatch technology for $40 million.
The announcement, by Fossil on Thursday, January 17, said a portion of Fossil’s research and development team currently working on the technology will also join Google.
Fossil has previously developed and launched smartwatches across 14 of its own and licensed brands.
In a statement, Greg McKelvey, executive vice president for Fossil, said together with the technology and its new “innovation partner” Google, the company hopes to “continue to unlock growth in wearables”.
In a statement to Wareable, a website dedicated to wearable technology, McKelvey said the deal will result in the launch of a “new product innovation that’s not yet hit the market”.
He added that the IP is for technology that Fossil acquired as part of its purchase of wearable devices startup, Misfit, in 2015.
Before being bought by Fossil, Misfit owned technology for a “scalable cloud and app platform” and had developed technology to solve the problem of limited battery life in wearables.
Despite selling the IP to Google, Fossil is still planning to launch multiple devices using smartwatch technology.
“The Fossil Group will bring the product to market, across our full breadth of brands over time, and then in true Google fashion, the technology will be expanded across the industry over time to benefit all,” McKelvey added.
The news comes amid rumours, reported by Wareable in August 2018, that Google plans to produce its own smartwatch to directly compete with Apple in the wearable device market instead of allowing third-party vendors to use its operating system, as it currently does.
Stacey Burr, vice president of product management for Google, said the addition of Fossil’s technology demonstrates Google’s commitment to the wearables industry by “enabling a diverse portfolio of smartwatches”.
Burr stressed that the technology resulting from the purchase will be made available to all existing and future partners.
The deal is expected to be finalised by the end of this month, Fossil said.
After the deal was announced, Fossil’s shares rose by 11%.
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