Fossil Group Inc announced today that it would sell its intellectual property related to a smartwatch technology currently under development to Alphabet Inc’s Google for approximately $40-million, and will send a portion of that R&D team currently to the search giant, with the deal expected to close at the end of January. “The addition of Fossil Group’s technology and team to Google demonstrates our commitment to the wearables industry,” said Stacey Burr, vice president of product management at Google’s Wear OS, a smartwatch platform. Read more for an in-depth look at the latest Wear OS features.
Fossil launched a ‘Sport’ smartwatch that comes with Wear OS late last year, and stated that smartwatches have become its fastest growing category. More than likely, Google will use Fossil’s IP to improve Wear OS before the next big overhaul is released. “Together with Google, our innovation partner, we’ll continue to unlock growth in wearables,” said Greg McKelvey, Fossil’s chief strategy and digital officer.
