Google’s Nest Bidding to Acquire Nokia’s Health Division
Finnish network giant Nokia is keen on selling its recently consolidated Health division and it seems Alphabet’s Nest might be looking to acquire it in an attempt to strengthen its foothold in the nascent smart home market. According to a report, two French companies and one non-European corporation are also in process of bidding to acquire Nokia Health.
Nokia’s Health division was formed recently when the company took over French brand Withings for a price tag of EUR 170 million (roughly Rs. 1,379 crores). Having recently written down around EUR 141 million (roughly Rs. 1,144 crores) as goodwill in the business, Nokia is now looking to sell off the division. Alphabet-owned Nest, which will soon be merged back into Google, has a particular interest in the acquisition considering it wants to gather some steam in the health gadgets segment that is beginning to experience a steady rise.
The report by Wareable also suggests that the French government is pushing for this acquisition by a domestic company as the country looks to grow in the AI industry. On the other hand, Google is also reportedly looking to invest in AI research in France.
While an eventual sale might be on the cards, it is currently unclear as to what part of the Health division will Nokia retain. Whether it will sell off or retain the B2B aspect of the business is yet to be seen.
Nokia’s Health department recently announced the launch of its new Nokia Body BMI Wi-Fi connected scale and the Nokia BPM+ soft-cuff wireless blood pressure monitor. In its latest announcement, the Nokia Health Mate app was also redesigned to offer a variety of five new programmes — namely, Sleep Smarter, Better Body, Pregnancy Tracker, Healthier Heart, and Leaderboard.