Tech giant Google has filed for FDA approval to use its Fitbit wearable to help detect atrial fibrillation (AFib), a common heart abnormality that raises the risk of heart attack, stroke and sudden death.
Some companies were able to overcome the odds despite controversy and close on the acquisitions. Others weren’t as fortunate, and the mergers folded. MD+DI has compiled a list of some of the most controversial deals the industry has ever seen.
The results of several ambitious studies testing wearables as early predictors of for Covid-19 are in — and they suggest that data from devices including Apple Watches, Fitbits, and Oura smart rings may be useful for flagging some infections in people before they even feel ill.
The San Francisco-based tech giant, Fitbit, has received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Conformité Européenne (CE) in the European Union for its electrocardiogram (ECG) app. The application is used to assess heart rhythm for atrial fibrillation (AFib).
As the coronavirus crisis lit up this spring, headlines about how the U.S. could innovate its way out of a pending ventilator shortage landed almost as hard and fast as the pandemic itself.
The New Yorker featured “The MacGyvers Taking on the Ventilator Shortage,” an effort initiated not by a doctor or engineer but a blockchain activist. The University of Minnesota created a cheap ventilator called the Coventor; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had the MIT Emergency Ventilator; Rice University, the ApolloBVM. NASA created the VITAL, and a fitness monitor company got in the game with Fitbit Flow. The price tags varied from $150 for the Coventor to $10,000 for the Fitbit Flow—all significantly less than premium commercially available hospital ventilators, which can run to $50,000 apiece.
Fitbit (NYSE: FIT) announced the launch of a low-cost emergency ventilator for use during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a press release, the maker of fitness trackers, which is being acquired by Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google, said it received an Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to develop and bring the ventilator to market. The device is designed to be used only when there isn't a traditional ventilator available.
The study comes in the middle of Fitbit being acquired by Google. However, the $2.1 billion deal is under scrutiny by the Department of Justice, according to an article from The New York Post. Critics said the deal could pose increased threats to customer privacy, The Post reports.
The Justice Department will review Google’s proposed $2.1 billion acquisition of fitness tracking company Fitbit, the New York Post reported Tuesday, putting the search giant in the sights of government watchdogs yet again as it already faces antitrust and data privacy investigations from federal and state regulators.
Google parent company Alphabet announced on Friday it will buy Fitbit for $2.1 billion — a massive deal that will pit Google squarely against Apple (AAPL) in the market for health and fitness tracking.
Having lost the title of top wearables maker to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last year, Fitbit's (NYSE:FIT) decline is now accelerating and will only get worse from here.
According to IDC's latest market share figures, Apple's share grew to 17% in the second quarter from 13% last year, while Fitbit's fell from 12.8% to 9.5%.