After slipping to Under Armour, Adidas acquires Runtastic

In an attempt to stay competitive in the fitness market, Adidas acquired the fitness tracking app developer Runtastic for a reported $230 million. The acquisition will allow Adidas to have access to Runtastic’s 70 million user database.

According to Reuters, the sports company said on Wednesday it had completed the acquisition through the partnership of a mysterious “angel” investor. Axel Springer SE, one of the largest digital publishing houses, sold 51 percent of their share of Runtastic to Adidas.

Adidas has been falling behind during the fitness wearable boom. It was only last year when the company released the MiCoach, while Nike partnered with Apple back in 2012 to pioneer fitness tracking.

Under Armour displaced Adidas last year as the second biggest sportswear maker, behind Nike. The sports giant then went on an acquisition spree, acquiring two Austin-based startups, MapMyRun and Gritness.

Runtastic offers 20 different applications in over 18 languages and even launched their own running wearable, the Orbit. The device is capable of 24 hour monitoring of  your sleeping cycle, running habits and general activity.

CEO Florian Gschwandtner recently went to the Runtastic blog to express delight in the acquisition. He also took time to relieve any concerns from the millions of active users.

“Runtastic will remain its own entity (within the adidas Group) and continue to operate from our current offices in here in Linz, Austria, Vienna and San Francisco. We will continue deliver further optimizations, unique content and a highly-anticipated new app by the end of the year,” wrote Gschwandtner.