Google To Buy Fossil's Smartwatch Tech For $40 Mln

(RTTNews) - Watchmaker Fossil Thursday announced plans to sell its smartwatch technology to Google for $40 million. Shares of Fossil is currently up 5% on the Nasdaq.

As part of the deal, a portion of Fossil Group's research and development team currently supporting the transferring IP will join Google. Fossil Group will retain more than 200 R&D team members to focus on innovation and product development.

"The addition of Fossil Group's technology and team to Google demonstrates our commitment to the wearables industry by enabling a diverse portfolio of smartwatches and supporting the ever-evolving needs of the vitality-seeking, on-the-go consumer," said Stacey Burr, Vice President of Product Management, Wear OS by Google.

"We've built and advanced a technology that has the potential to improve upon our existing platform of smartwatches. Together with Google, our innovation partner, we'll continue to unlock growth in wearables."

Fossil is one of the primary brands that continues to build smartwatches that run Google's Wear OS software. Fossil said that smartwatches are its fastest growing category.

Fossil expects the transaction to close this month.