Renowned fitness-tracking company, Jawbone, has entered into liquidation proceedings and is shutting down. After years of financial pressures, the consumer electronics company one valued at $3 billion is the latest casualty in the wearable electronics market after Pebble, the pioneer of smartwatches sold its assets to Fitbit late last year.
The liquidation story was first carried by The Information and has now been verified by The Verge. It is reported that Jawbone co-founder and CEO Hosain Rahman has founded a new company called Jawbone Health Hub that will make health-related hardware and software services.
According to Business Insider, Jawbone had actually stopped producing its fitness trackers last year and had sold its remaining inventory to a third-party reseller at a reduced price in order to generate much-needed revenue. And in January, The Verge also noted that Jawbone had completely stopped offering customer support through its social media channels, angering many longtime customers who were still expecting updates to their Jawbone Bluetooth speakers and UP activity trackers.
The company was first formed in 1999 as an audio technology company called AliphCom, and was initially focused on developing military-grade audio technology. Later on, it became widely known for its best-selling Bluetooth headsets and Jambox speaker line, which at one point was even called “America’s favorite Bluetooth speaker.”
