Fossil is a brand well known for its traditional watches, and now the company has plans to include far more reaching fitness attributes to those designs.
Announced today, the Fossil Group has agreed to acquire the fitness wearables company Misfit in a major deal equaling $260 million. According to Fossil, the company will not be resting on its laurels and plans to incorporate Misfit’s technology into its traditional watches as early as 2016.
Sonny Vu, the co-founder and President of Misfit, will be shifting roles a bit as he transitions to the Fossil Group, where he will be taking the President and Chief Technology Officer once the deal goes through its final paces. According to the announcement, that’s expected to be finalized by the end of 2015. For Vu, it’s about brand recognition as the next steps are taken:
“If you don’t have a brand it is hard to be legit in this space.”
It’s also about the convergence of style and technology, something that Fossil is uniquely positioned to move forward with.
“With the acquisition of Misfit, Fossil Group will be uniquely positioned to lead the convergence of style and technology and to become the fashion gateway to the high-growth wearable technology and connected device markets.” Kosta Kartsotis, CEO of Fossil Group said in a statement
Smartwatches are certainly not a brand new element, as Pebble, and even Samsung, have been giving it a go for at least a couple of years now. However, with Apple stepping into the market with the Apple Watch, many different companies that may have skipped the idea are now moving in. TAG Heuer recently unveiled its own Connected smartwatch, which retails for more than $1,000, and now Fossil is obviously making a big push for the market with this deal.
[via The Wall Street Journal]
No comments:
Post a Comment