It has been a long and harrowing journey for one-time Kickstarter darling Jawbone, but alas, all good things must come to an end. After a lengthy lawsuit with Fitbit and long-declining sales, the company is finally saying sayonara. As initially reported by The Information, the fitness tracker and speaker manufacturer once valued at $3 billion has begun liquidation proceedings. Jawbone’s co-founder and CEO Hosain Rahman has begun a new venture called Jawbone Health Hub focused on health-related hardware and software services, and many of Jawbone’s employees have made the jump over to this new company. And if you have a Jawbone device, Jawbone Health will be responsible for its service.
While it is not a particularly surprising move, it is something of a cautionary tale to hot startups who once seemed invincible, only to meet a gradual (and rather painful) demise. Even Fitbit, who could be credited as the victor in all this fitness tracking carnage, is not doing so well — its stocks are trading at 52-week lows, Business Insider reports.
Indeed, while the company is shutting down, it could still be worth quite the pretty penny given its pending lawsuits with Fitbit. Of course, that is not exactly a reliable source of money that any former employees should be hanging their hats upon.
Jawbone Health Hub, on the other hand, could be a different story. It has little to do with the original Jawbone, however, as its own company description notes that it is making the shift toward the clinical, promising to be “at the forefront of revolutionizing primary care for millions of patients worldwide.” The new company continues, “Combining more than 20 years of proprietary wearable technology with clinically relevant signals, Jawbone Health connects patients and physicians like never before with continuous, data-driven dialogue. This unique position of daily directed guidance stands to redefine primary care, while helping people live happier, healthier and longer.”
We reached out to the statup and will update this story with any additional information. But in the meantime, Sherwood Partners is allegedly dealing with the liquidation process and also taking over the last of the legal scuffle with Fitbit.
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