Under Armour acquires MyFitnessPal for $475M and Endomondo for $85M
Owen Williams / The Next Web :
Context & Ripple Effects
Under Armour is doubling down on a digital strategy it started weeks earlier: after buying MapMyFitness it launched its own fitness tracking app on iOS and Android, and now it adds MyFitnessPal's calorie-tracking audience for $475M plus European rival Endomondo for $85M. The two deals turn an apparel brand into one of the largest owners of consumer fitness data overnight.
The move also puts pressure on competitors — Adidas answered within months by paying $239M for Runtastic — and it sets up the arc this coverage later closes: in 2020 Under Armour unwinds the bet, selling MyFitnessPal for $345M and shutting down Endomondo entirely.
First-order effects
- Under Armour instantly gains tens of millions of active users across three apps (MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal, Endomondo), shifting its center of gravity from apparel toward software and data.
- Endomondo's European base gives Under Armour international reach its MapMyFitness purchase lacked, while MyFitnessPal brings nutrition tracking alongside existing workout logs.
Second-order effects
- Adidas' $239M Runtastic acquisition shows the deal triggered a land-grab: sportswear brands concluded they needed their own mobile audiences rather than licensing or partnering.
- Owning user data creates new monetization and liability paths — MyFitnessPal later launches a paid premium tier, but the same data practices drew Privacy International findings that it shared user data with Facebook without consent, potentially violating GDPR.
Third-order effects
- Apparel companies buying app portfolios proved hard to operate: Under Armour's eventual sale of MyFitnessPal at a loss and Endomondo's shutdown suggest brand-adjacent acquisitions struggle without a software operating model, pushing the sector toward specialist players like Freeletics and Whoop raising venture capital instead.
- The episode foreshadows regulatory scrutiny of fitness-data sharing, as GDPR-era investigations into apps like MyFitnessPal make consumer health data a compliance-heavy asset rather than free fuel for ad targeting.
The trend: Sportswear brands spent the mid-2010s buying mobile fitness platforms to own customer data, then largely retreated as standalone, VC-backed digital fitness specialists took over the category.