It was reported last month that Fitbit engaged Qatalyst for a sale. I wonder who leaked the news to Reuters, which did not mention a price: was it Qatalyst, hoping to start a bidding war?
Garmin has their own growth. In fact, Garmin is the only wearable market that I've noticed growing in the last 3-4 years (Apple is gaining traction obviously, but the Apple Watch is only a small bit of their market). Fitbit is failing, they're in desperate need of an acquisition.
If you own a Garmin watch (Forerunner line for example), you'll understand. It has all the fitness tracking of a Fitbit, an always-on color display, best in class GPS, and several days/a week of battery life. And, their luxury watches are really uncontested for the mountain/marine/extreme market. Frankly, the build quality is better than much of the market as well. The software is less than Apple, but better than Fitbit.
The wearable market is becoming narrower and narrower, and I really think it will come down to Apple, Google and Garmin.
In the wearable space, Apple and Google make flashy gadgets, essentially. This is great for the business people/casuals. But Garmin is capturing a whole different market. I don't see many competitors in the athletic (marathon, triathlete, ironman) market, and even less so in the extreme (mountain, marine exploration) market.
Take what I'm saying with a grain of salt though, I got my whole family hooked on Garmin devices, myself coming from their line of bike GPS. I've also invested in Garmin for several years now.
For example, they have an aviation division which produces radars and glass cockpits for government and defense. If they were having trouble with their consumer lines (which by all appearances seem to be thriving) they might spin it off and sell it, but the whole company seems a bad match for an Alphabet acquisition.
Google wants the brand.