Fitbit bought Pebble for much less than originally reported

Fitbit paid $23 million for smartwatch maker Pebble, according to Fitbit’s fourth quarter earnings report, released earlier today. This buyout price is less than what was reported earlier, with some publications having reported that Fitbit paid somewhere between $34 and $40 million for the smartwatch startup.

It’s highly unlikely the buyout price exceeded the debt that Pebble racked up over the past five years; and the newly-revealed detail is a sad and final conclusion for a startup that managed to launch its hardware after a record-breaking crowdfunded campaign, captivating a niche crowd of early adopters and app developers with its unique smartwatches.

Fitbit also said that it paid $15 million dollars for Vector, a little-known smartwatch product. All of this is part of Fitbit’s larger efforts to launch its own smartwatch and smartwatch app store this year, despite the struggles that Fitbit has recently faced.