Daily Crunch - Google is buying Fitbit

Happy Friday

Google announces that it’s acquiring Fitbit, Apple TV+ arrives and Sidewalk Labs is moving forward with its smart city development. Here’s your Daily Crunch for November 1, 2019.

Google is acquiring Fitbit for $2.1 billion

Google will pay $7.35 per share for the wearables company — an all-cash deal that values Fitbit at $2.1 billion.

While Google has invested plenty in its own in-house development, buying Fitbit represents a step-change, and the opportunity to take advantage of years of effort focused specifically on the wearables category.

Read more

Sell your company, start your next one, improve your unicorn chances!

Sponsored by Think3

We’re Think3, a friendly $1B private equity fund for SaaS founders looking to exit. Data shows you’re better off founding successive companies and taking more “shots on goal” during your career. We buy founders’ companies, ensure their legacy, and set them up for the next, bigger one.

Read more

Apple TV+ now live, with one year free for new iOS, Apple TV and Mac purchases

At launch, you’ll find “The Morning Show,” “See,” “For All Mankind,” “Dickinson,” “Snoopy in Space,” “Ghostwriter” and “Helpsters,” as well as the documentary feature “The Elephant Queen” and the talk show “Oprah’s Book Club.” Some of these offer the first three episodes at launch, while others include the full season.

Read more

Sidewalk Labs (Alphabet’s grand experiment in smart cities) will move forward with Toronto project

Sidewalk Labs and Waterfront Toronto (the regulatory body overseeing the project) have come to an agreement that will limit the scope of the Sidewalk development — intended as a proving ground for the latest thinking in sustainable design — and make the company work more closely with oversight agencies on the construction of the 12-acre parcel.

Read more

Altria writes down $4.5 billion from its investment in Juul

That’s roughly one-third of the $12.8 billion that the tobacco giant had invested into Juul a little less than one year ago.

Read more

EHang, maker of autonomous flying shuttles, files for $100 million IPO

The company, which has been flying demonstration flights with passengers on board for a while now, is gearing up to launch its first commercial service in Guangzhou after getting approval from local and national regulators to deploy its drones in the area.

Read more

Japanese instant-credit provider Paidy raises $143 million from investors, including PayPal Ventures

This is the largest investment to date in the Japanese financial tech industry, according to data cited by Paidy, and brings the total investment the company has raised so far to $163 million.

Read more

Announcing TechCrunch’s new commenting system

There are a bunch of new features that you can read about in the post, but what I’m really hoping is that this makes a big dent in the spam.

Read more

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.