Under Armour To Sell MyFitnessPal For $345 Million, After Acquiring It In 2015 For $475 Million

Global fitness giant Under Armour announced this morning that it will be selling MyFitnessPal to investment firm Francisco Partners for $345 million, five and a half years after acquiring it for $475 million. The company also announced that it will be winding down the Endomondo platform which it also acquired at the same time for $85 million. TechCrunch reports: In a press release announcing the news, Under Armour said the reason for this decision was to simplify and focus its brand, keeping it aimed at its "target consumer -- the Focused Performer" in the interest of building "a singular, cohesive UA ecosystem." The fact that Under Armour is selling MyFitnessPal at a discount (not even including five years of inflation and stated MyFitnessPal user growth) indicates there's more to this than just maintaining focus. It's definitely true that both MyFitnessPal (which claimed 80 million users in 2015 at the time of acquisition, and has more than 200 million users according to today's press release) and Endomondo were aimed at more casual and entry-level fitness users, who might be working out for the first time, or looking to improve their daily health, but aren't likely training for endurance-sport competitions. Under Armour's overall brand image is more associated with professional athletics, and with an enthusiast/semi-pro clientele (or those aspiring to that designation). What's more likely going on here is that Under Armour sees diminishing value in this segment over the long term... The company is going to continue to own and operate the MapMyFitness platform, which includes MapMyRun and MapMyRide.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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