"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."

To be fair, also:

>Fitbit, too, has experienced its own challenges. The company priced its shares at $50 a go when it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2015, but today it is trading at $8.40. That depression is largely down to less-than-impressive financial results.

It seems like the values atributed to these companies/assets are random numbers.

I can understand that in technology related companies even a strong appreciation (or depreciation) is possible in a short period of time, but there must have been some initial overestimation in these cases.

wow! from $740 million to $40 m. Kinda similar to what happened to yahoo's valuation

This is a bit shocking, as I feel it indicates that Fitbit felt a significant threat from Pebble, which feels like it would have been misplaced.

Looks to me as if was just an acqui-hire.

Yup. Fitbit said they will shutdown the product line

I try to refrain from comments like these, but I'll make an exception here.

For that very decision - shutting down the product line - fuck you, FitBit, and fuck the horse you ride on.

And you'd better make sure those last Kickstarter rewards are shipping out soon.

Lame. Love my pebble. Original Kickstarter backer. Currently rocking the pebble time steel.

Bummer. I've got a Pebble Time and it's a great watch. Not any smarter than I want it to be.

And Pebble Time Steel seems to be out of stock on their website.

I wonder if Fitbit will keep the platform going, or if it will just be abandoned.

Time Steel is out of stock, but only because the Steel Pebble Time 2 is available for pre-order and delivery in January. (Does look like the extra steel bands are out of stock though.)

https://www.pebble.com/buy-pebble-time-2-smartwatch

Literally everything is out of stock or in pre-order mode ("Ships in November!" oh wait, what month is it?). Even their USB cables!

Not a good look, and with this news I wouldn't expect stock to ever re-appear.

Man, that's the crap Yahoo pulls. The Astrid task app was the only to-do list I actually used until Yahoo killed it. I wonder what percentage of devs actually stay and how many just bail.