Fitbit Inc. FIT
announced Thursday morning its acquisition by Alphabet Inc. [s; GOOGL]
GOOG,
Google has officially closed. Alphabet agreed to pay about $ 2.1 billion, or $ 7.35 per share, to acquire Fitbit. The agreement was first announced in November 2019, but suffered a regulatory setback, especially in the European Union. European regulators studying the deal ended up blessing last month after meeting Google’s commitments on data privacy. “Google will continue to protect the privacy of Fitbit users and has made a number of binding commitments with global regulators, which confirm that the health and well-being data of Fitbit users will not be used for Google ads and that this data will be will keep data separate from other Google ads, ”CEO James Park said Thursday in a letter to Fitbit users. Fitbit shares stopped before the announcement. Fitbit shares had gained 5.2% in a 12-month period compared to a 16% increase for the S&P 500 SPX,
in the same lapse.