Google has completed the acquisition of the fitness device maker Fitbit, valued at $ 2.1 billion. The deal could help the internet business become even stronger as US government regulators launch antitrust litigation to undermine its power.
The acquisition closes on Thursday 14 months after Google announced a deal that immediately sounded the alarm.
Google makes most of its money selling ads based on the information it collects about the interests and whereabouts of its billions of users. Data protection officials feared that they could take advantage of Fitbit to immerse themselves even more in people’s lives.
However, Google has made a number of commitments in Europe and other parts of the world, promising not to use the health and fitness data of Fitbit’s 29 million users to sell other ads. He insists that he’s more interested in adding Fitbit to his growing arsenal of internet-connected products, including smartphones, laptops, speakers, cameras, and thermostats.
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Google is maximizing Fitbit, a company that has sold about 120 million devices in 100 countries since its inception in 2009, while fighting a series of lawsuits from the US Department of Justice and the Attorney General. he abused the power he has accumulated as the owner of the world’s most dominant search engine. The Justice Department trial is not expected to take place until September 2023.
Since Google started with nothing more than its namesake search engine in 1998, it has grown into one of the leading providers of email, digital maps, navigation, and its Android operating system web and mobile devices. The success of these free services is fueling a digital advertising empire and is the number one reason Google’s parent company Mountain View, California-based Alphabet Inc. has a market value of nearly $ 1.2 trillion.