It's rare to see a new maker come out with a smartphone that's actually competent, but that's what Nextbit did with the Robin in 2015. It wasn't a perfect phone, but it was neat and stylish. There's been no word on what Nextbit's next move was after the Robin, and now we know why. Nextbit has been acquired by Razer. Yes, the maker of all those gamer-oriented keyboards and mice (and other things). The financials of the deal are not available at this time.

According to the announcement on Nextbit's site, the Robin and all accessories are no longer being offered for sale. However, Nextbit will honor the warranty on all products for 6 months from today. Security patches will also continue rolling out through February 2018. The company will continue operating as an independent company within Razer, working on "unique mobile design and experiences." It's not clear if that means smartphones, but I'm not sure why else Razer would buy a smartphone maker. Some quotes given to TechCrunch seem to indicate phones are still the plan.

Hopefully Nextbit doesn't adopt the Razer... *ahem* aesthetic.

This is not the first acquisition by Razer in recent memory. It also picked up THX and the corpse of Ouya. The news of the deal is being treated very positively by Nextbit, but that's not uncommon. If Razer's keyboard money can give Nextbit the room to keep competing in smartphones, then that's a good thing for consumers.