The EU is launching a full-blown antitrust investigation into Google's Fitbit acquisition (GOOG, GOOGL, FIT)

* The EU has officially opened an investigation into Google's acquisition of Fitbit. * Google announced it planned to buy Fitbit for $2.1 billion in November, but the deal has yet to get regulatory approval. * The EU investigation will focus on whether the acquisition would give Google an unfair advantage over competitors by hoovering up Fitbit user data. * Google's senior vice president of Devices and Services put out a blog post on Tuesday defending the acquisition. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The EU has officially opened an in-depth investigation into Google's planned $2.1 billion acquisition of wearables company Fitbit. The European Commission, which was already conducting a preliminary investigation of the deal, announced the probe on Tuesday. The investigation will center on whether Google's acquisition of Fitbit will allow it to hoover up health data, which could in turn give Google an unfair advantage over competitors. EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement: "The use of wearable devices by European consumers is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. This will go hand in hand with an exponential growth of data generated through these devices. This data provides key insights about the life and the health situation of the users of these devices. Our investigation aims to ensure that control by Google over data collected through wearable devices as a result of the transaction does not distort competition." Sources previously told Reuters a full-blown investigation was on the way, and that it will take about four months to complete. Google announced it had agreed to buy Fitbit for $2.1 billion in November. Last month the tech giant formally promised the EU it would not use health data from Fitbit to target ads at Google users. On Tuesday, Google's Senior Vice President of Devices and Services Rick Osterloh put out a blog post defending the acquisition. "This deal is about devices, not data. We've been clear from the beginning that we will not use Fitbit health and wellness data for Google ads," Osterloh wrote, referring back to Google's promise not to use health data for ad targeting. "We appreciate the opportunity to work with the European Commission on an approach that addresses consumers' expectations of their wearable devices. We're confident that by working closely with Fitbit's team of experts, and bringing together our experience in AI, software and hardware, we can build compelling devices for people around the world," he added. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: How waste is dealt with on the world's largest cruise ship
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PayPal parts with top advertising executive after shifting its marketing strategy during the pandemic

* PayPal's chief creative officer Steve Simpson, its top advertising executive, left the company after about a year. * The move came after PayPal shifted its marketing strategy during the coronavirus pandemic, placing less emphasis on the brand and more on catering to small businesses, said a source with direct knowledge of the marketing operation. * Simpson's departure followed that of CMO and former Apple executive Allison Johnson in May. Both "decided to leave PayPal" as the company streamlines its global marketing functions, according to a PayPal spokeswoman. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. PayPal's highest-ranking ad executive Steve Simpson left earlier this month after just over a year as part of a restructuring of its global marketing business. Simpson, who was chief creative officer, was hired to make high-minded ad campaigns to help PayPal stand out from competitors like Square, Stripe, and Apple Pay. But this strategy chan

Neighbor, an Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup that wants to be the Airbnb of self-storage, has started partnering with landlords to turn empty offices into spaces for people's stuff

* The Airbnb of self-storage, Neighbor, has seen a surge in demand as a result of the pandemic, according to CEO and cofounder Joseph Woodbury. * The company announced a partnership Tuesday with landlord and operator Bridgeton Holdings to fill vacant office space with self-storage in San Francisco and eventually across the country. * This comes as the office market has taken a big hit from the coronavirus pandemic. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The coronavirus has accelerated the trend of using under-utilized real estate for other purposes, like turning retail storefronts and parking lots into distribution hubs for e-commerce fulfillment and redeveloping malls into communities by adding residential units. One area of commercial real estate that's in high demand is self-storage. The average spend on construction of new facilities per year jumped to $5 billion in 2018 from $1 billion in 2015. With the coronavirus prompting moves, a likely trigger f

The machines USPS is removing from distribution centers can sort more than 36,000 pieces of mail per hour. Here's how they work.

* The United States Postal Service has been deactivating mail-sorting machines around the US ahead of the surge expected from mail-in voting this fall, reports say. * Each machine can sort up to 36,000 pieces of mail per hour. * The machines sort letters, postcards, and other mail by bar code. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Mail-sorting machines used by the United States Postal Service (USPS) have been dismantled and removed from distribution centers around the country, according to postal workers. They told Motherboard that at least 19 machines were removed without explanation. An internal USPS letter from June included a plan to remove hundreds of more mail-sorting machines this year. Postal Workers Union members and some Democratic politicians have expressed concerns about changes to the USPS under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major Trump donor who started his position this summer. President Trump has attacked the USPS and claimed that voting

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