Peloton acquired design firm that worked on Facebook Portal, Google Pixel 4 sensors

By Chris Burns/Updated: March 19, 2021 10:19 am EST

Today a report detailed an acquisition of the design firm Gossamer Engineering as initiated by the exercise-centric tech company Peloton Interactive Inc. earlier this year. The acquisition was apparently made to assist the company's efforts to create new hardware, like treadmills and bicycles – so said people familiar with the matter speaking with Bloomberg. Gossamer Engineering was an independent firm before this acquisition, having found success in contracts with both Facebook and Google.

According to the report at Bloomberg, Peloton was acquired for a as-yet-unknown amount of money earlier this year. This group of engineers and creators previously worked on some rather important and big-name projects.

• Facebook's Portal video chat device

• Google Pixel 4's motion sensor chip (ATAP, SOLI)

• Several Barnes & Noble Inc. Nook devices*

Bloomberg also suggested that "Some of the key players at Gossamer were executives at Barnes & Noble Inc. who oversaw development of the Nook e-reader." This may refer to one of the two Taipei City workers we've found listed on LinkedIn (see last paragraph in this article).

If so, *this worker was site manager of the Taipei software engineering team with Barnes & Noble, Inc. from December of 2011 to July of 2016. During that time, this team worked on several Barnes & Noble Nook devices and the Nook App (Android and iOS). This same worker also worked as a Procurement Engineering Manager with HP from 2009 to 2011.

In other words – the Gossamer Engineering team has a long past full of work with big-name companies.

Sources suggested that Gossamer deal with Peloton was done in May of 2019. At that time, "16 engineers specializing in mechanical and electrical engineering, quality assurance, and technical program management" moved to Peloton's team. This would have been several weeks before the company filed to go public – that happened on August 27, 2019.

NOTE: At least two former Gossamer Engineering engineering team members are now part of the Peloton Interactive engineering team in Taipei City, Taiwan. One of two former Gossamer Engineering workers is currently listed with LinkedIn as a Peloton Interactive Senior Electrical Engineer in Taipei. The other is listed as Director, Head of Taipei engineering team at Peloton Interactive.