Nokia Completes Acquisition of Withings

Nokia recently closed the acquisition of Withings, a personal smart devices manufacturer best known for its digital, internet-connected scales that have been endorsed by magician Penn Jillette. The acquisition was originally announced in April, and will ease the path for Nokia to establish a new Digital Health business unit, which will be led by Cédric Hutchings, formerly CEO of Withings. Hutchings will reports to Ramzi Haidamus, president, Nokia Technologies.

“This is the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the history of Nokia Technologies as we extend our product portfolio to include a series of powerful digital health technologies,” said Haidamus. “The Nokia brand is synonymous with innovation, connectivity and consumer technology and the acquisition of Withings puts us in a perfect position to capitalize on the huge opportunity in the health space. We're excited to welcome the Withings team to the Nokia family.”

The Digital Health business unit will combine employees from Withings and Nokia’s preventive health and patient care teams. It will build on Withings’ device portfolio and IoT edge expertise to offer digital health products designed to help customers make smarter decisions about health. The existing product line includes activity trackers, smart body analyzer scales, thermometers, blood pressure monitors, home and baby monitors.

On June 9, Nokia Technologies will be hosting an invitation only event in San Francisco to share its vision for digital health and showcase its products, coinciding with the opening of its San Francisco office, in the heart of the Bay Area.

This makes Nokia into even more of a major player in the IoT, getting the company beyond connectivity and smart mobile devices and into the most personal areas of people’s lives. That kind of access will likely keep the company in the “bears watching” category for competitors for quite some time.