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This story was originally published and last update .
Google’s acquisition of Fitbit is now complete, according to an announcement made by the company earlier this morning. Claiming that the deal was still about Fitbit’s hardware expertise and not customer data, Google says it has eased regulatory issues with a series of guarantees and commitments. However, we do not know if the concerns of US or Australian regulators have actually been addressed given the current status of the two investigations.
Google secured the blessing of the European Commission in December for the long-awaited $ 2.1 billion deal. However, there were a few conditions attached to it, all of which appear to have been addressed on the basis of Google’s announcement. In short, Google needs to keep Fitbit user data separate, where it can’t be used for things like advertising, and third-party access to existing Fitbit web APIs needs to be maintained. Google also cannot give Fitbit an unfair advantage in the Android wearable market or indirectly disadvantage other companies by creating new closed APIs, etc.
On paper, this would appear to close the merger, which we have been expecting since its announcement in November 2019, but there are two potential issues.
First, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission raised its own objections to the deal just a few weeks ago, saying its investigation would not be completed until March 25. You don’t have to be a watchmaker to read today’s calendar and see that today (that is, January 14) is a bit before. When asked for details of Google’s announcement of the merger that the merger was “complete”, the ACCC provided us with an extra-voluminous statement, claiming that things had been turned into a “proper investigation. enforced “due to Google’s action, which could be subject to legal action. Choice snippets of the super-long statement are included below:
The ACCC will continue to investigate the acquisition of Fitbit, Inc (Fitbit) by Google LLC (Google), which is now complete despite the ongoing public review of the transaction by the ACCC.
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“Google’s decision to acquire Fitbit before we complete our merger review means that we are currently conducting an enforcement investigation. Accordingly, and based on the results of our investigation, we will consider whether to take legal action on this matter, ”said ACCC President Rod Sims.
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In December, the ACCC decided it would not accept a long-term behavioral commitment offered by Google that aimed to address competition concerns because of the significant difficulties in effectively monitoring and enforcing the commitment.
As this is now a completed acquisition, ACCC will remove this issue from its informal public merger registry. The investigation will therefore no longer have a provisional decision date. “
Second, it looks like Google also did not get approval from the US Department of Justice for fusion either. Assistant Deputy Attorney General Alex Okuliar tells us:
The Antitrust Division’s investigation into Google’s acquisition of Fitbit is still ongoing. Although the division has not made a final decision on whether to take enforcement action, the division continues to investigate whether Google’s acquisition of Fitbit may harm competition and consumers in the US The Division remains committed to conducting this review as thoroughly, efficiently and expeditiously as possible. ”
However, a Google representative says this is not the case, and that he made get implicit approval after a timeout expires:
“We have complied with the DOJ’s extensive review for the past 14 months, and the agreed waiting period has expired without their objection. We keep in touch with them and we promise to answer any additional questions. We are confident that this agreement will increase competition in the busy portable device market, and we have made commitments that we plan to implement globally. “
Google’s acquisition of Fitbit has been under review since 2019, and so far the DoJ has yet to release the results of the investigation. This could be due to the general scope of its investigations against Google, or perhaps Trump’s DoJ simply did not renew or extend this waiting period, implicitly granting approval for the merger by not respecting the time limit previously imposed. (We don’t know the process here, and the DoJ doesn’t seem to have released those details we can find.) We’ve reached out to the US Department of Justice for more information, and we’ve reported the discrepancy with Google as well. ; we will update if we hear more. We have also contacted the Australian ACCC for more information.
Recently, Fitbit wearable devices have adopted some features from Google, such as Assistant integration, and Google has also developed deeper integration for wearable devices, such as with the new Assistant Wellbeing section. Even before the merger was “complete,” Google and Fitbit went down this route, and the company’s recent wearable devices have been rated well. If this trend continues, it could mean better wearable devices for consumers, just as the global market is about to explode.
Between Australia and the United States, however, it appears Google jumped the gun when announcing the merger was over. Maybe the company is trying to get the rail regulators approved prematurely, although that probably isn’t a wise move amid so many antitrust investigations.
Google may not have obtained approval from the U.S. Department of Justice either, as all signs point to the regulatory agency’s investigation being ongoing. Our coverage has been updated with both the DoJ statement provided a few outlets and a statement from Google regarding the DoJ waiting period expiring.
The ACCC also tells us that its investigation is ongoing and that this decision to complete the merger before the review is completed has turned it into an “enforcement investigation,” with the possibility of legal action. We reached out to Google for their advice on this development, but have yet to receive a response at the time of writing.
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