Fitbit discloses that it bought smartwatch startup Pebble for $23 million (FIT)

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Fitbit discloses that it bought smartwatch startup Pebble for $23 million (FIT)

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Craig Barritt/Getty Images for AOL Inc.

Fitbit finally disclosed Wednesday that it paid $23 million to acquire assets from beleaguered smartwatch startup Pebble.

The sale price was a secret until now, but it was listed in Fitbit's earnings release. When the deal was formally announced late last year, neither company would disclose how much the deal was worth, but estimates pegged it at less than $40 million.

After the sale, Fitbit shut down Pebble and only offered jobs to about 40% of the staff, mostly those working on Pebble's software. Everyone else was laid off.

Pebble raised much more than that $23 million over the years. A lot of its cash came from untraditional sources like its buzzy Kickstarter campaigns and debt. There wasn't a lot of interest from venture capital firms, and a source told Business Insider last fall that Pebble had to sell once banks lost confidence in the startup and called in their loans. Pebble's CEO Eric Migicovsky told Business Insider last March that the company had raised another $26 million, but declined to comment on where that money came from.

Fitbit also disclosed Wednesday that it paid $15 million for Vector Watch, another smartwatch company.

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SEE ALSO: How smartwatch pioneer Pebble lost everything

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February 22, 2017 at 08:21AM