Google's Nest eyes Nokia Health assets
Nokia is looking to sell its Withings home health business, and Google's Nest may be interested, according to reports.
Nest is know for its smart home devices like the Thermostat E.
Google's smart home division Nest may be looking to expand its product portfolio to health gadgets.
Nokia , which bought a slew of smart home health products from Withings just two years ago, is reportedly in the market to sell its Health division, according to the tech website Wearable.
Among its potential bidders is Nest, the Google-owned smart home company known for products like its smart thermostats and smoke detector. Two French companies and another non-European company are also in the running, according to the French news outlet Les Echos, the article states.
It's unclear if French regulators would approve a deal with Google following the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal in which 87 million Facebook users may have had their information used without their permission to use for targeted political advertising, the article notes. The French government may also push Nokia, based in Finland, to keep the sale of the Withings division, which was originally formed in France, in country.
Since buying Withings two years ago and rebranding its digital health products for the home, which includes a body scale, activity trackers and sleep sensors, it has struggled financially. Nokia took a write down of $164 milion on its digital healthy business in October last year.
Meanwhile, Nest is also going through a transition as the division is being merged into Google's hardware business. If Google were to get the Withings technology from Nokia it would mark a big step for Google into health-centric smart home market. The company has dabbled in the health wearable market with its Google Fit and Wear OS software for wearable devices. But it has yet to manufacture health-focused devices.