MyFitnessPal has set Under Armour back a cool $475 million, making the $85 million paid for Endomondo look like a relative bargain. There’s a difference in user base between the two companies that’s equally large. MyFitnessPal boasts 80 million registered users, and a food and exercise database of five million entries, while Endomondo has 20 million users, the majority of whom are in Europe.
It’s not the first acquisition of its type from Under Armour either. In late 2013, the company paid out $150 million for MapMyFitness and its database of more than 20 million users. Combined, conservatively using these basic numbers, this brings Under Armour’s total database count to at least 120 million health and fitness fans.
What’s it going to do with all of this data? In the press release, it says it’s in the process of building the “world’s largest digital health and fitness community,” and what digital health and fitness community is complete without some kind of wearable companion device these days? But who will make such a device with Under Armour? The answer is probably HTC.
The two entered a partnership during CES 2015, saying the plan was to connect athletes everywhere in a more intuitive way than ever before, and subsequent rumors have spread regarding HTC launching a wearable device during Mobile World Congress next month. HTC’s global online communications manager tweeted the combination of HTC, MyFitnessPal, Endomondo, and MapMyFitness was “unstoppable,” and that he “can’t wait until it all comes together.” HTC has also been experimenting with standalone, cross-platform apps, so a joint project in this area is also possible.
MWC begins on March 2, and we’ll keep you updated on HTC and Under Armour’s plans over the coming weeks.
