Facebook Bid Against Google In Attempt To Acquire Fitbit

Facebook has been revealed as “Party A” in an attempt to acquire health tech company Fitbit, CNBC reported on Tuesday (Nov. 26) citing a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.

Facebook made several bids for Fitbit in October, including a final offer of $7.30 per share, sources told the news outlet.

The filing showed that Fitbit CEO James Park met with “the chief executive officer of Party A” — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg — on June 11 of this year, for a dinner to discuss the wearables market, sources told CNBC. 

A second dinner with Zuckerberg took place on July 2 with Park and other Fitbit executives. Zuckerberg and Park met again in September, according to the filing.

Google announced on Nov. 1 that it wanted to make a deal with Fitbit for about $2.1 billion in cash, or $7.35 per share. Facebook said it has no intention of bidding again since Google has agreed to the purchase, according to the report. 

Fitbit was valued at around $2.1 billion when the deal with Google parent company Alphabet was announced. The deal is expected to close in 2020. Google said it will work with Fitbit’s experts to develop top artificial intelligence (AI), software and hardware to help stimulate advancement in wearables that could benefit people worldwide.

Google also said users’ personal information will never be sold and that there will be transparency about what data is collected. Users will have the option to review their data and the freedom to delete it or move it elsewhere.

“Over the years, Google has made progress with partners in this space with Wear OS and Google Fit, but we see an opportunity to invest even more in Wear OS as well as to introduce Made by Google wearable devices into the market,” Google Senior Vice President of Devices and Services Rick Osterloh said at the time.