Nokia Corp, global communications company best known for cellphones, recently announced plans to expand the company’s reach into digital health hardware and software with the acquisition of France-based health technology firm Withings S.A. The communications company intends to add Withings and all its resources to the Nokia Technologies portfolio of products and services, enhancing Nokia’s fitness and health-based applications.

“We have said consistently that digital health was an area of strategic interest to Nokia, and we are now taking concrete action to tap the opportunity in this large and important market,” said Rajeev Suri, president & CEO of Nokia. “With this acquisition, Nokia is strengthening its position in the Internet of Things in a way that leverages the power of our trusted brand, fits with our company purpose of expanding the human possibilities of the connected world, and puts us at the heart of a very large addressable market where we can make a meaningful difference in peoples’ lives.”

Launched in 2008 and headquartered in Frace, Withings was founded by Chairman Eric Carreel and CEO Cédric Hutchings with a mission to colonize the digital health market with products. Now the company boasts approximately 200 employees working at locations in Paris, France, Cambridge, the U.S. and Hong Kong. The company’s portfolio includes activity trackers, weighing scales, thermometers, blood pressure monitors, and more. All built on a sophisticated network connected platform that extends into the Internet of Things paradigm for health and fitness data collection and analysis by individuals to help them make better informed decisions about their well-being.

“Since we started Withings, our passion has been in empowering people to track their lifestyle and improve their health and well-being,” said Hutchings. “We’re excited to join Nokia to help bring our vision of connected health to more people around the world.”

Withings will bring its products into Nokia’s stable including its connected thermometer, wireless blood pressure cuff, wearable pulse-ox tracker and its extremely stylish Activité Steel, an elegant analog fitness tracker smartwatch.

According to website Statista, the wearables market is expected to a 19 billion dollar market by 2018. This market includes everything from smartwatches, smart glasses (such as Google Glass) and health and fitness bands and trackers. According to Juniper Research, fitness wearables are poised to dominate the market through 2018–especially with more multi-function devices and app-enabled fitness wearables entering the market, thus blurring the lines between fitness-specific products and general use. Juniper predicts that approximately 110 million people will use fitness wearables by 2019 compared to 130 million buying smartwatches.

This move for Nokia comes after recent acquisition of  French rival Alcatel-Lucent SA in January of this year.

The planned transaction values Withings at 190 million USD (170 million EUR) and would be settled in cash and is expected to close in early Q3, 2016 subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

Featured image credit: Withings SA