Acquisition sends thousands of Whistle pet trackers to IoT graveyard

In a shocking turn of events, Whistle pet trackers are set to become obsolete as they transition to the Internet of Things (IoT) graveyard. Established in 2013 in Seattle, Whistle has been a key player in the GPS and activity monitoring market for pets. However, following its recent acquisition by rival Tractive, an Austrian company, all of Whistle's smart devices will be rendered inoperable. Tractive announced the acquisition on Monday, having previously sold its own line of Internet-connected GPS trackers since 2013. The company purchased Whistle from Mars Petcare, a subsidiary of Mars Inc., which had acquired Whistle for $117 million back in 2016. The acquisition aims to bolster Tractive's presence in the U.S. market. As part of the transition, current Whistle owners have until September 30 to claim a replacement device from Tractive. Those with active subscriptions will see their plans transferred to the new devices, while users without a subscription will need to purchase a Tractive subscription to obtain a replacement. Subscriptions for Tractive start at $108 annually. Despite taking over Whistle's technology, Tractive has determined that maintaining two separate platforms would complicate operations and hinder service quality. The company emphasized that by consolidating efforts onto a single technology platform, it can offer enhanced features and improvements more efficiently. Tractive devices come with advanced capabilities, such as monitoring resting heart rate and respiratory rate, which are not available in Whistle's offerings. However, some former Whistle users remain hesitant about the switch, as Tractive's trackers lack certain features of Whistle’s Health 2.0 Smart Device, which tracked pet behaviors like licking, scratching, eating, drinking, and sleeping.