Texas-based Fossil recently unveiled its line of Fossil Q wearables. Its parent company, Fossil Group, today announced that it will acquire Misfit, the company behind the Misfit Shine and Shine 2 activity trackers and other fashionable wearables, for US$260 million (about CA$345 million).
The acquisition provides Fossil not only with Misfit’s current products but also those currently in development along with a scalable cloud and app platform. It also gains software and hardware engineering teams experienced in wearable development as well as access to new distribution channels and new enterprise partnerships, including music, fitness, healthcare and digital entities.
“We have a significant opportunity to add technology and connectivity across our platform of watches and accessories,” said Kosta Kartsotis, chief executive officer of Fossil Group. “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.”
The Fossil Group is comprised of a number of brands including Fossil and Skagen. Misfit’s technology will gradually makes its way into “a targeted portion of its portfolio” next year.
Misfit Founder Sonny Vu will stay on as president and chief technology officer of connected devices for Fossil Group, Inc. He will also be a member of the company’s executive leadership team.
Pending the usual closing conditions and regulatory approval, the acquisition is expected to close before the end of fiscal 2015.
Source : Fossil Group (PDF)