Fourteen-and-a-half months later, Google has finally completed its acquisition of health wearables company Fitbit. The news was announced this morning in complementary statements from Fitbit cofounder and (now previous) CEO James Park and Rick Osterloh, Google's SVP of devices and services.
"This is just the beginning because becoming part of the Google family means we can do even more to inspire...

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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on Tuesday rejected an undertaking proposed by Google to address competition concerns over its planned acquisition of Fitbit.
The ACCC in June released a list of issues it had with the merger that included concerns that Google would be given too much access to people’s data, as well as decreasing competition in the wearables market.
Google...
Following months of regulatory investigation, the European Commission has officially signed off on Google's $2.1 billion purchase of health-wearable-maker Fitbit. Still, the go-ahead is contingent on a handful of commitments from the tech company that focus on its competitive practices across advertising, digital health APIs and smart device interoperability.
"We can approve the proposed...

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Amnesty International is urging the E.U. Commission to halt the much publicized Fitbit-Google merger unless the companies can demonstrate consideration of human rights risks associated with data and surveillance, and the implementation of data safeguards.
In November of 2019, news broke that Google was set to acquire Fitbit for roughly $2.1 billion. However, the merger is yet to be greenlighted ...
Consumer wearable devices can be key tools in predicting the onset of illnesses like COVID-19 by using health metrics like breathing rate, resting heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV), according to findings published in npj Digital Medicine from Fitbit.
The paper outlines predictors for the severity of illness, symptom prevalence, illness duration among male and female participants and...
Using heart rate variability (HRV) data, wrist-worn health trackers can provide a range of predictive cardiovascular health metrics, according to a new study published in The Lancet.
The study, which was funded by Fitbit and used its smartwatches, looked at how devices continuously gathering data from the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system could derive and describe diverse...
Taiwan-based diabetes management app Health2Sync announced that combining Fitbit wearable devices with their Health2Sync Patient Management Platform can help users control and better manage the symptoms of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), based on the results from their clinical study in Taiwan.
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The study, conducted with four of Taiwan's leading diabetes clinics, yielded some key...
Fitbit is coming out of its third quarter beating its expected revenue by $64.9 million. This comes ahead of its much-anticipated merger with Google. Fitbit did not hold an earnings call due to the pending merger but did release figures on the quarter.
In the release, Fitbit CEO James Park attributed some of the success to the release of the Fitbit Sense, the company’s first smartwatch to...
Symptom-based COVID-19 screening can be improved by incorporating data collected from wearable sensors into prediction algorithms, an approach that could complement ongoing testing efforts by spotting symptomatic and pre-symptomatic individuals early, according to a research letter recently published in nature medicine.
The findings are part of the DETECT (Digital Engagement and Tracking for...
Fitbit announced today it will receive nearly $2.5 million from the U.S. Department of Defense through the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command to expand its work in developing an algorithm that can detect COVID-19 before symptoms show.
In addition to the award, Fitbit will begin a study with Northwell Health’s Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research to further advance the early...