Oppenheimer On Why Fitbit's Pebble Acquisition Works

Offering its take on Fitbit Inc (NYSE: FIT)'s acquisition of certain Pebble assets, Oppenheimer said the deal is unlikely to immediately impact the near-term growth trajectory. Nevertheless, the firm believes the deal to be positive and supportive of its long-term thesis.

Analysts Andrew Uerkwitz, Martin Yang and Paul Dean suggested that the purchase price, though not disclosed, might be $34 million to $40 million, based on a VentureBeat assessment. The analysts see the M&A announcement as an early step in the right direction.

Oppenheimer's Optimistic Assessment

• The driver is believed to be Pebble's third-party app development platform and community, which is acquired with the ultimate goal of creating innovative apps/solutions for deeper integration into the healthcare ecosystem.
• The tech acquired includes ePaper displays, voice control and a timeline-like OS.

The firm believes that the deal, though not immediately alleviating near-term sales concerns, could help change the narrative.

At time of writing, Fitbit was down 0.82 percent at $7.90.