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Pebble Gets Acquired By Fitbit - Ends Production and Ceases Support Of Its Existing Lineup of Smartwatches (getpebble.com)
Reader phorm writes: In a notice to Kickstarter backers, pebble has stated that -- following the acquisition by Fitbit (official now) -- they will no longer promote, manufacture, or sell devices. Further, while existing functionality may continue, it is likely to be degraded and warranty support will no longer be provided. This includes any recently shipped Pebble models. For those that were eagerly awaiting shipment of Pebble Time 2 and other newer devices, those devices will not ship at all. Pebble has indicated refunds will be made within 4-8 weeks. Those expecting their money may not want to hold their breath, however, because a contradictory statement made by to backers by email says that refunds will be made via Kickstarter by March 2017.Fitbit said it is only purchasing software assets from Pebble.
You're sort of right. Apparently they're acquiring the IP and also hiring some of the employees that are now jobless. The shell company still technically exists and will go into bankruptcy and probably receivership shortly thereafter.
So Pebble (the company) continues to exist (perhaps in receivership) until all it's debtors (which includes warranties) are satisfied.
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The original "Pebble" was "assigned" to an "Assignee" corporation, which sounds a lot like a bankruptcy trustee. It appears this is the way it's done in California. (I would be happy to hear from someone who knows more about this.) So, no, Fitbit is not obligated to do anything. They bought _some_ IP from the assignee which allows the assignee to pay off some of the creditors.
The problem here is that it's very hard to build a technological product without depending on a single source supplier somewhere. Just look at any smartphone: they all have at least semi-custom CPUs; you can't just drop in a different one, even if they are all ARM-based. Usually all the other complex chips are the same. You can design a new product (or maybe a new version that mostly looks and works the same from the user's perspective) with an alternate part, in many cases, but that's a more serious undertaking.
Unfortunately for Pebble, it sounds like their product design was based on a type of display (e-ink) that just isn't all that widely used, especially now that e-books seem to have abandoned them. You can't make a smart-watch with a backlit LCD that runs for over a week without recharging; this is simply against the laws of physics, so e-ink was the obvious choice to make a product like this. I don't see how they really could have done anything different in regards to their screen supply choice.
No, a fraudulent sale is a reason to have sales unwound by the courts. If you have an arms-length transaction with a willing buyer at a reasonable price, you haven't done anything that a bankruptcy court wouldn't oversee and approve in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
The company is done. Even in bankruptcy (which is likely coming), those assets would be sold, the obligations left with the defunct company and discharged, and the cash doled out first to the secured creditors, then (if any is left) to others. There's a rather complex hierarchy of priority, and who gets what amount of cents on the dollar is frequently negotiated, but customers are essentially unsecured creditors and very low in the priority scheme.
In short, you're not going to be able to force someone who only is interested in buying IP to also take on order, warranty, and support obligations for the product.