Under Armour on Thursday took "a huge leap forward in the fast-emerging fitness technology market" with plans for a $150M acquisition of Austin, Texas-based MapMyFitness, creator of the MapMyRun and MapMyRide mobile applications and websites, according to Mirabella & Sherman of the Baltimore SUN. The acquisition, UA's first, "opens a new frontier ... in online social networks and expands its toehold in fitness devices." MapMyFitness has "more than 20 million registered users who map, record and share their workouts using GPS and other technologies." UA plans to "integrate MapMyFitness applications into its performance-monitoring Armour39 devices, launched earlier this year." But UA officials said that the company also plans to "keep the application open to all devices." UA Founder, Chair & CEO Kevin Plank said that the brand "aims to build on MapMyFitness's digital users and make it a destination for athletes who want to track their workouts." MapMyFitness co-Founder & CEO Robin Thurston said that he "got a call over the summer from Plank ... who proposed the idea of merging." The execs "quickly realized that their companies shared more than a common corporate culture." MapMyFitness currently "has 100 employees." After the sale closes, which is "expected by the end of the year, Thurston will be president of MapMyFitness as well as take on a new role of driving digital business for the apparel brand." MapMyFitness would "remain in Austin and become a subsidiary of Under Armour" (Baltimore SUN, 11/15).
