Germany's Adidas AG aimed to surpass rivals in the digital fitness arena with the acquisition of an Austrian app called Runtastic GmbH to the tune of $239 million, as per The Wall Street Journal.
This deal with the Austrian fitness app maker gave access to 70 million active users and may soon catch up with rival companies in connected wearables.
The German company stated on Wednesday that it had concluded the procurement from Axel Springer SE, the majority owner, together with an "angel" investor and the company's founders.
As per The Business Times, rival Nike was a primary in fitness tracking and even teamed up with Apple on the Nike+ running plans for the iPhone and iPod and launched in 2012 FuelBand.
Adidas has been falling behind the market share in sporting goods to its larger U.S. rival and started its own miCoach fitness instrument last year.
Under Armour, which has grown immensely overtook Adidas last year as the second-biggest sportswear builder in the United States. The company has purchased exercise and diet app MyFitnessPal for $475 million and social fitness network Endomondo for $85 million.
Under Armour declared those deals have given it 120 million recorded users on its Connected Fitness platform, in which it said made it the largest fitness community in the world and digital health.
Adidas' Runtastic offered over 20 apps in 18 languages from a variety of fitness activities and endurance,
According to Fortune, Herbert Hainer, Adidas Group CEO said in a statement, "Digital technologies are providing new capabilities and insights to help athletes of all levels take control of their sporting destiny. This investment will add considerable value on our journey to deliver new world-class sports experiences."
Thus, purchasing Runtastic was a smart move by Adidas to try and breach into a spot that Nike has been dominating.
