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Pebble's next step

blog.getpebble.com

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Re: Pebble's next step

#221

Post by cptskippy »

FT_intern wrote: post #160
cptskippy wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FitBit bought just their software assets for under $40 million. In 2015, Citizen offered to buy the whole company for $740 million. FitBit did not acquire their $24 million in debt or any physical asserts. They offered jobs to 40% of the staff.

> In 2015, Citizen offered to buy the whole company for $740 million ouch, i can only imagine how the founders feel

It depends on the terms of the offer. He might have thought he was working in his employee's best interests by not taking the offer. Alternatively he could have negotiated support contracts for existing customers and provided stock options to employees then cashed out.

But in hindsight he's probably kicking himself.

Re: Pebble's next step

#224

Post by lettergram »

mattmaroon wrote: post #129
lettergram wrote: post #109

You know, Pebble has garnered one of the best group of loyal customers I know of: well-off techies. Had they came to the community and said, "hey we are losing sales and we need everyone to pitch in $10 / year for software support (maybe a web interface for fitness or something) I guarantee a few hundred thousand people would have done it. Had they shared a coupon with the community (i.e. email add campaign, or add o…

I don't think they even have a few hundred thousand customers. Their first one kicked in the neighborhood of 50k supporters. Did they even ship the second? A hardware company on the hook for fulfilling 50k orders of the sequel has some pretty serious expenses. A sale might have been the best landing and what got everyone a refund for the 2nd.

Their pebble app has 500,000+ downloads on the Google store, and they have 2 million in pebble sales (I believe that's delivered). They've shipped their second Kickstarter last year (Pebble Time Steal).

Re: Pebble's next step

#225

Post by yabatopia »

paulftw wrote: post #138
captainmuon wrote: post #64

I'm quite angry. This sucks so bad. I "ordered" a Time 2 via Kickstarter. I'm glad they are refunding me, but that makes me think... WTF, did they not produce any Time 2's? Or are they all going to the landfill? How long have they been knowing that they are going to be insolvent? This doesn't happen overnight! Was the last Kickstarter a gamble? Why does everybody have to aim for total market dominance to be successfu…

They genuinely believed they were going to change the world, drank too much of their own kool-aid and eventually ran out of money. Pretty sure they feel terrible right now and I don't think they slept well for the past 6 months. Could someone reasonable see this coming before KS? Most likely yes. Would they get this far without taking big risks? Most likely no. You feel angry you didn't get your pebbles, I feel angry…

You can take the "going to change the world" too far. They are bankrupt and still believe they're "Making Awesome Happen". Investors lost their money. Suppliers will not get paid. Employees are losing their jobs just before Christmas. Customers will not get their orders. Current customers are left without support and - in the near future - a limited functioning device. How is that "Making Awesome Happen"? A more humble attitude would be more appropriate.

Re: Pebble's next step

#226

Post by hedora »

Tldr: FitBit acquires() bankrupt pebble, lays of 60% of staff, cancels all pebble product lines. FitBit also cancels the warranties on already sold pebbles. FitBit may also have stiffed some holders of $27m of pebble's debt.

() due to legal shenanigans we must not call this an acquisition or an acqui-hire. Also, FitBit didn't do those things, a shell company created by this deal did, which is totally different somehow.

When things like this happen, I always hope that consumers that got screwed over by the deal (and people that hear about it) avoid the acquiring company after the fact. If they treat pebble customers like this, how will they treat their own customers later?

Re: Pebble's next step

#228

Post by merpnderp »

I'm sad I'm not getting my Time 2, but that is really awesome of them to refund my money from their Spring Kickstarter. They didn't have to do that, which is much appreciated.

Re: Pebble's next step

#229

Post by Fnoord »

otabdeveloper1 wrote: post #122
captainmuon wrote: post #64

I'm quite angry. This sucks so bad. I "ordered" a Time 2 via Kickstarter. I'm glad they are refunding me, but that makes me think... WTF, did they not produce any Time 2's? Or are they all going to the landfill? How long have they been knowing that they are going to be insolvent? This doesn't happen overnight! Was the last Kickstarter a gamble? Why does everybody have to aim for total market dominance to be successfu…

> Sometimes I think there is a secret cabal conspiring so we can't have nice things There is, it's called "Chinese OEM manufacturers". (Yes, I know that an 'OEM manufacturer' is like an 'ATM machine'.)

> There is, it's called "Chinese OEM manufacturers". > (Yes, I know that an 'OEM manufacturer' is like an 'ATM machine'.)

OEM means "Original Equipment Manufacturer".

Re: Pebble's next step

#230

Post by hobo_mark »

alonsonic wrote: post #47

I can't believe this, just got a Pebble 2 a week ago and now they are literally saying it may not work in the future. If we rely on their cloud services for activity tracking and app downloads then it will be useless if FitBit doesn't maintain the platform. I have to say I'm really disappointed and this is a huge blow to people that invest in startups offering hardware. If the company fails forget about the smart stu…

I also have a Pebble 2, what cloud services? The android app checks for a firmware update when you pair but is otherwise standalone.

I enabled sync to google fit because I hoped it would backup sleep data but that does nothing sensible, it's all stored locally (and in fact if you reinstall the Pebble app you lose all your data).

ps: if anyone knows of some software to export these data from an android phone, I'd love to know because I could not find anything

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