The smartwatch market pretty much tanked in 2016. Apple just sold a record number of Apple watches but even they were down for the most of year. There just wasn't enough runway for Pebble to keep running; they even laid off 25% of their staff earlier in the year.

They dropped 90% of their valuation... It's rare for that to be malice. Most likely their costs overran them and they couldn't find funding.

Hanlon's razor