A couple of years ago, Google announced their plans to acquire Fitbit. This acquisition would no doubt help Google’s wearable efforts, but as with all acquisitions, they need to go through an approval process to ensure that there are no antitrust violations. Now it seems that Google has announced that the acquisition is complete, but the US Department of Justice begs to differ.In a statement made to Android Police, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Alex Okuliar said, “The Antitrust Division’s investigation of Google’s acquisition of Fitbit remains ongoing. Although the Division has not reached a final decision about whether to pursue an enforcement action, the Division continues to investigate whether Google’s acquisition of Fitbit may harm competition and consumers in the United States. The Division remains committed to conducting this review as thoroughly, efficiently, and expeditiously as possible.”
Google, on the other hand, claims that they have complied with the DoJ’s requests so far and that the 14-month waiting period expired without the DoJ’s objection, and so it was understood that they had no issue with the acquisition. Google adds, “We continue to be in touch with them and we’re committed to answering any additional questions. We are confident this deal will increase competition in the highly crowded wearables market, and we’ve made commitments that we plan to implement globally.”
Did Google jump the gun in their announcement, or was there something else in the DoJ’s investigation that they have yet to conclude? Either way, we’ll have to wait and see how this plays out.
Filed in . Read more about Fitbit, Fitness, Google, Health, Legal and Wearable Tech. Source: blog.google