Dr. Ivan Poupyrev is part of Google’s secretive ATAP division, a team of Googlers tasked with making the stuff of science fiction reality. Take Project Jacquard, introduced by Poupyrev not at Google I/O's 2015 keynote but rather at an under-the-radar standing-room-only session on the second day of the conference. Project Jacquard won't fly under the radar anymore. It was one … [Read more...]
Avago Buys Broadcom for $37 Billion
Broadcom makes communications chips that power many, if not most, of your wearables, as well as big data switches. As part of an ongoing consolidation in that business, it's being acquired by Avago -- what used to be the semiconductor division of HP -- for $37 billion. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year. The surviving company will be called … [Read more...]
Jawbone Sues IPO-Bound Fitbit, Claims “Plundering” of Employees and Info
Just as Fitbit, leader in the fitness band market, is suiting up for its $100 million IPO, rival Jawbone has hit it with a particularly juicy lawsuit, claiming that Fitbit was systematically poaching its employees, who brought confidential information along with them. The complaint, filed in California Superior Court, claims that Fitbit contacted a third of Jawbone's … [Read more...]
Is Pebble Doing OK? Probably.
There are starting to be rumors -- most prominently picked up by TechCrunch -- that Pebble is having some problems. Despite a phenomenally successful $20 million Kickstarter round for its upcoming Pebble Time smartwatch, TechCrunch is citing "sources close to the company" as saying attempts to raise venture money are not going well, and that the company took out a $5 million … [Read more...]
Google’s Fadell Says Glass Isn’t Dead, But Don’t Count On It Soon
Google put its retail products guy, Tony Fadell, in charge of Glass earlier this year, then went largely silent about the previously wildly over-hyped project. For the first time, Fadell talked about Glass this week at a Google Zeitgeist conference in the UK -- and what he said didn't make it sound like we're going to see a product anytime soon. Fadell reportedly told the … [Read more...]
Jawbone’s Latest $300M Funding Was Debt, Not Equity: Bloomberg
Jawbone's been having some problems both with product and with press lately, and those difficulties appear to be extending to corporate finance. Bloomberg reports that the company raised $300 million late last month from the private equity firm Blackrock, but that the round was debt, not equity. It makes a difference. The loan is secured by Jawbone's assets: intellectual … [Read more...]
Inside the Fitbit S-1, Worrying About What’s Not Said
Deconstructing financial documents is a particular skill, and RockHealth gets very deep on Fitbit's registration to go public. One of the major points that Fitbit avoids talking about, RockHealth notes, is anything about user engagement and churn. Because product sales have been increasing so fast, it's hard to get a handle on how fast Fitbit trackers are hitting the junk … [Read more...]
Will Google Debut a Wearable at I/O?
Google I/O, Google's big developer fest, is coming at the end of May, and there's starting to be talk that the search giant will be showing off a new wearable. Mashable notices that Google's ATAP hardware team -- a hardware skunkworks geared toward rapid success or rapid failure -- is doing a session on May 29th at noon Eastern with a loopy but intriguing session description … [Read more...]
Fitbit Files for an IPO, Seeking $100 Million
Well, the balance sheet is certainly in good shape. Fitbit, the movement tracker and software company, has filed an S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, indicating its intent to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol FIT. The company hopes to raise $100 million. As part of the filing, Fitbit revealed that $132 million in profit … [Read more...]
Million-Dollar Omate Joins Top Incubator, Moves to US
It's been a while since we've checked in with Omate, a very early French maker of smart watches. Two things made Omate interesting: it had raised more than $1 million in crowdfunding, and it was the first company to build a watch that included its own SIM card, and therefore didn't require a phone as a communications hub. The last we wrote about Omate, it was announcing the … [Read more...]