It's official: Nokia owns Withings

The French maker of health gadgets is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Finland's Nokia.

John Falcone Senior Editorial Director, Shopping

John P. Falcone is the senior director of commerce content at CNET, where he coordinates coverage of the site's buying recommendations alongside the CNET Advice team (where he previously headed the consumer electronics reviews section). He's been a CNET editor since 2003.

Expertise Over 20 years experience in electronics and gadget reviews and analysis, and consumer shopping advice Credentials

Self-taught tinkerer, informal IT and gadget consultant to friends and family (with several self-built gaming PCs under his belt)

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John Falcone

May 31, 2016 6:52 a.m. PT

The Withings Go, shown here, is one of the company's latest fitness trackers.
Sarah Tew/CNET

That was fast.

Little more than a month after announcing its intention to buy Withings for 170 million euros, Nokia has announced that it's now a done deal -- and that deal was finished far ahead of the third-quarter close that was originally anticipated. The French gadget-maker of all things health-focused, from fitness trackers to smart scales, will become the basis for Nokia's new Digital Health business unit, which is now led by the former Withings CEO, Cédric Hutchings.

For Finland's Nokia, it's the latest move to reassert its brand after selling the bulk of its phone business to Microsoft for $7.2 billion in 2014. (Microsoft has since sold off much of the low-end handset at firesale prices, even as the future of its Lumia phones remains in doubt.) In addition to the Withings buy, Nokia has also begun moving into virtual reality hardware with its pro-level Ozo 360 camera.

We won't have to wait long to see what the Nokia-Withings pairing will provide. The company is already teasing a June 9 event in San Francisco that will double as a showcase for Nokia's new Bay Area office, as well as a platform for some of its new products.