By Bronson Jayamanna
California, USA (CWBN)_ Now that the European Commission has cleared Google’s $2.1 billion purchase of wearable tech firm, the acquisition of Fitbit is almost sure to complete.
Back in November 2019, when Google revealed that it would be acquiring the Fitbit, Rick Osterloh senior VP of hardware at Google, said that he Fitbit purchase was “an opportunity to invest even more in Wear OS as well as introduce Made by Google wearable devices into the market.” However, following this, the authorities soon took part, and in August, they started reviewing the acquisition of Fitbit by Google in regards to data security and anti-trust issues.
To proceed forward with the deal, Google has committed to some compromises in order to alleviate the EU’s issues with regards to the acquisition. Amongst these adjustments, Google has decided not to use any user data in the European Economic Area (EEA) for targeted ads by leveraging Fitbit data, including GPS and health data.
In addition, the corporation shall be advised to retain a technical distinction between its business and Fitbit’s and to enable EEA consumers to accept or reject the usage of Fitness’s health data to inform Google’s other tools such as its search engine and Google Maps. Google will have to retain its contributions to the Fitbit Web API and the Android API to boost competitiveness in compliance with the deal’s acceptance. The mentioned agreements would last for 10 years.
Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission executive vice president said a statement “We can approve the proposed acquisition of Fitbit by Google because the commitments will ensure that the market for wearables and the nascent digital health space will remain open and competitive,”. She went on to say “The commitments will determine how Google can use the data collected for ad purposes, how interoperability between competing wearables and Android will be safeguarded and how users can continue to share health and fitness data, if they choose to.”
The deal has also been investigated by Australian regulators. Late last month, the Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) in Australia announced three adjustments that were meant to mitigate competition and privacy issues relating to wearable Fitbit and Google data and to facilitate long term interoperability with Android phones, wearables and third-party applications. At the present time, the ACCC is seeking feedback on its proposals.
Ruth Porat, CFO of Google’s Parent company Alphabet, declared in November that she plans to conclude the deal of Fitbit by the end of 2020.
