Dive Brief:
- Nokia Technologies plans to acquire Withings, a smartphone-connected health device maker, for $191 million, MobiHealthNews reports.
- This represents the company's new focus since it sold its mobile phone business to Microsoft in 2014.
- "When we were approached by Nokia, it was inspiring to discover how perfectly aligned our visions are," Withings CEO Cédric Hutchings said in a statement. "Together, we believe we can transform the world," he said.
Dive Insight:
Withings CEO, Cedric Hutchings, wrote in a blog post that the acquisition by Nokia will help further the company's vision. "We've been impressed with the plans the Nokia team has shared with us both for Preventive Health and Patient Care." The company currently manufactures several fitness wearables.
There have been several acquisitions over the past few years involving activity tracker companies. Jawbone acquired BodyMedia in 2013 - one of the first major consolidations in the wearable activity tracker sector. However, earlier this year, Jawbone stopped making BodyMedia Fit device data available to users and shut down the BodyMedia website.
Intel acquired Basis Science in 2014, the maker of the Basis B1 Band. Adidas acquired Runtastic last year for $240 million and the Fossil Group bought MisFit for $260 million. This year, Logitech bought wireless earbud company Jaybird - which also makes an activity tracker, for $50 million in cash.
The fitness tracker sector is estimated to reach $5.4 billion by 2019, according to a 2015 report by Parks Associates, a research firm.