The rumour mill is going wild that Pebble the original smartwatch creator is selling itself to Fitbit and their many passionate customer aren’t happy about it. There are a number of reasons why this is a great move for Fitbit but a fairly poor decision for Pebble. With rumours that Fitbit will be paying only a tenth of what Citizen offered it last year you can see why the Fitbit board must be very happy. As reported by Jon Russel at TechCrunch it seems not only Citizen were willing to buy Pebble for a pretty penny.
A source close to the company told TechCrunch that watch maker Citizen was interested in purchasing Pebble for $740 million in 2015. This deal failed and before the launch of the Pebble 2 Intel made an offer for $70 million. The CEO, Eric Migicovsky refused both offers. Our source said that Fitbit is now paying between $34 and $40 million for the company and is “barely covering their debts.”See more…
So with Pebble being the result of 3 of the top 5 crowdfunded projects on Kickstarter it makes you wonder where it all went wrong and where this leaves the backers of their most recent project. As mentioned by JD at crowd fund insider
Pebble Kickstarter campaigns are numbers 1, 3 and 4 for most funded projects ever on Kickstarter. The only interloper in the top four mix is the Coolest Cooler. But today, according to numerous reports, Pebble is being sold to Fitbit only to be shut down, becoming a footnote in the history of wearable technology.
The most recent Kickstarter project raised almost $13 million but Pebble encountered challenges delivering on committed rewards. Backers, now aware of the impending sale and Pebble demise, are understandably concerned about their pledges with many requesting refunds.See more…
Pebble have been quiet so far with their only response being “We’ll be sending all Time 2 and polished Round backers an email update regarding availability within the next few days.”
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