Google Steps Further Into Healthcare With Fitbit Acquisition

Google buys Fitbit for 2.1 billion. With the news of Amazon's Health Navigator acquisition coming just one year after acquiring PillPack – in the same week that Google acquired Fitbit – there should be little doubt that the healthcare landscape continues to go through a seismic shift. In fact, it has been over the last five years. By 2020, $24 billion will be available for healthcare tech spend (according to an estimate from Statista) and it is clear to all the titans--Apple, Google, Amazon, Salesforce--that the largest battleground in the tech world is and will continue to be healthcare. And, while the analysts have been split on whether this Google-Fitbit marriage is a wearable play or a healthcare play, make no mistake: this is a healthcare play.