Thirsty joggers could soon be buying their bottles of water with their Fitbits after the activity tracking company bought the wearable payments assets of Coin. Financial terms of the deal - which marks the end of the road for Coin - were not disclosed.
The deal, which includes key personnel and intellectual property specific to Coin’s wearables payment platform, is intended to fast-forward Fitbit's ability to put NFC payments in its devices, although this will not happen in 2016.
James Park, CEO and co-founder, Fitbit, says: "Coin has been one of the key innovators in advanced payment solutions. The inclusion of their payment technology into our offerings will further our strategy of making Fitbit products an indispensable part of people's lives."
The deal marks the end of the road for Coin. Fitbit is not acquiring Coin's main product, a payment card-sized device which stores the details of users' credit, debit and gift cards within its memory and can be used in their place.
In the age of mobile wallets, Coin says in a blog that it will not sell any more of the devices, which will work until their two year built-in batteries run out. The Coin rewards and developer programs have been shuttered.