Under Armour Snaps Up Two Fitness Apps For $560 Mln

(RTTNews) - Sports clothing and accessories company Under Armour Inc (UA), Wednesday said it has acquired two mobile apps for about $560 million, as part of efforts to expand into the digital fitness platform.

Under Armour, based in Baltimore, Maryland, will pay $475 million for MyFitnessPal, a free app for tracking food habits and caloric-intake. The other deal is valued $85 million for Endomondo, an open fitness tracking platform and social fitness network connecting athletes globally.

MyFitnessPal, with over 80 million registered users, has developed one of the largest nutrition and calorie databases. Under Armour said the addition of MyFitnessPal adds nutritional resources such as a calorie counter, nutrition and exercise tracker to its offerings.

Endomondo, utilizing GPS and other advanced technologies, provides users with the ability to map, record and share their workouts. Endomondo currently hosts 20 million registered users, about 80 percent of which are located outside of the U.S., providing immediate scale and increased international presence for the Under Armour Connected Fitness community.

Following the anticipated closing of the acquisition in the first quarter of 2015, MyFitnessPal will continue to operate out of its headquarters in San Francisco, California, Under Armour said. Endomondo will continue to operate out of its headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Under Armour reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results, driven by a 31 percent jump in sales.

The company posted quarterly net earnings of $87.7 million or $0.40 per share, compared with $64 million or $0.30 per share last year.

Revenues for the quarter were up 31 percent at $895.2 million, compared with $682.8 million in the prior year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.39 per share on revenues of $849 million for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Apparel sales for the quarter rose 29.7 percent from a year ago, accounting for most of the business, the company said in a statement. Footwear sales surged 55 percent and accessories gained 22 percent.

For the full year 2015, the company expects sales of$3.76 billion, while analysts currently expect $3.76 billion.

UA closed Wednesday at $73.57, up $0.74 or 1.02%, on a volume of 4.4 million shares on the NYSE. In after hours, the stock dropped $0.26 or 0.35% at $73.30.