Fitbit close to buying software assets from smartwatch startup Pebble

San Francisco

FITBIT Inc, the fitness band maker, is close to buying software assets from struggling smartwatch startup Pebble Technology Corp in a bid to better compete with Apple Inc, according to people familiar with the matter.

The deal is mainly about hiring the startup's software engineers and testers, and getting intellectual property such as the Pebble watch's operating system, watch apps, and cloud services, the people said. They asked not to be identified speaking about an unannounced transaction.