Google to acquire Fitbit for US$2.1 billion

Embed from Getty Images 

Fitbit is going to be the newest brand to be taken under Google's wings. Google announced that it has "entered into a definitive agreement" to acquire Fitbit for US$2.1 billion (around CA$2.7 billion). The announcement comes days after reports are going around that Google was in talks to purchase the fitness tracker company. Fitbit will be joining Google itself, in the same way that Nest is under Google right now.

According to Rick Osterloh, Google's senior vice president for hardware, the reason they want Fitbit is to help them create wearables within the company. That they "see an opportunity to invest even more in Wear OS as well as introduce Made by Google wearable devices into the market."

Click to read more ...

Tesla reportedly acquires Ontario-based battery manufacturing company Hibar Systems

Embed from Getty Images 

A recent report came out claiming one of Tesla’s latest acquisitions is a battery manufacturing company based in Richmond Hill, Ontario. According to public records, Tesla bought Hibar Systems sometime between July and October 2019. Before July 2019, Tesla Canada didn’t have any subsidiary companies. But recent federal documents show Hibar as a company that it owns. Neither company has commented on the matter yet. As for a reason for the acquisition, we can assume, based on Hibar’s business, that it has something to do with the battery manufacturing process.

Click to read more ...

Apple buys ‘majority’ of Intel’s smartphone business for US$1 billion

Embed from Getty Images

Apple is moving forward with its plans of developing its own cellular hardware with its latest acquisition. The company is buying the “majority” of Intel’s smartphone modem business for US$1 billion. It’ll see Apple taking on 2,200 Intel employees, intellectual property, and leases. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year if regulators approve of the handover, that is.

In the smartphone chipset market, Intel won’t be completely out of the game. But it’ll scale back. And its focus on 5G will be in areas where it “most closely aligns” with what its customers want. The focus would be on customers like network operators, cloud service providers, and equipment manufacturers. The company will also work on developing modems for computers, Internet of Things devices, and self-driving cars.

Click to read more ...

Apple acquires self-driving car startup Drive.ai

Kaveh Waddell/Axios

Apple’s latest purchase can be considered more as an acqui-hire. The company just bought Mountain View-based autonomous driving startup Drive.ai. They’ve hired dozens of the company’s engineers and Drive.ai has ceased all operations throughout the last few weeks. Rumours of Apple buying Drive.ai was going around earlier this month, suggesting that the company wanted to boost the development of its own self-driving vehicle system. And from the looks of it, Apple is looking at the company so it could bring in its employees.

Drive.ai was founded back in 2015 by a group of Stanford University students who wanted to introduce a self-driving shuttle service in select cities in Texas. But the company ran into problems and sought out a buyer, which we now know is Apple. Axios didn’t say how much Apple bought Drive.ai for, but the company took on the new hires into its engineering and product design divisions. The move confirms that Apple is still working on its Apple Car project, despite laying off 190 employees from its self-driving car division as part of a restructuring effort.