The shoemaker Adidas announced Wednesday that it had acquired all outstanding shares of Runtastic, a European maker of fitness apps and wearable activity trackers, in a deal that valued Runtastic at 220 million euros ($239 million). Adidas designs and manufactures sports shoes, clothing and accessories.
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In a statement, Adidas said it “has found a ideal partner that fully understands the potential of the convergence of sport, digital and data in an always connected and always on-demand world”. These include wearables and other fitness monitors.
Runtastic’s mobile app – which has racked up more than 140 million downloads – uses Global Positioning System to track jogs, bike rides and walking sessions, monitoring the user’s time, distance, pace, elevation change and calories burnt.
The German multinational said that it has done with the acquisition process from majority owner Axel Springer, along with the company’s founders and an angel investor. “In addition, it offers the opportunity to grow a highly engaged athlete user base and leverage the power of our broad product portfolio”, said Herbert Hainer, CEO of the Adidas Group.
Its competitor Nike was a leader in fitness tracking. This acquisition will finally give some substantial foothold to Adidas in the digital fitness tracking market to compete against Nike+.
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Fast-growing Under Armour Inc, which last year overtook Adidas as the second-biggest sportswear maker in the United States, earlier this year bought diet and exercise app MyFitnessPal for $475 million and social fitness network Endomondo for $85 million.
