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NEWS IN ENGLISH | Axel Springer AG acquires a majority stake in Runtastic
Axel Springer AG acquires a majority stake in Runtastic
2013-10-02 07:05:00
Axel Springer acquires a 50.1 percent majority stake in Runtastic, one of the world's leading providers of mobile apps for the measurement of sport and fitness data. Runtastic was founded in 2009 by Florian Gschwandtner, Alfred Luger, René Giretzlehner and Christian Kaar. The registered office of the company is in Pasching near Linz (Austria). The four founders remain shareholders and will continue to run the company as Managing Directors. The Austrian business angel Dr. Johann Hansmann also remains on board as a shareholder.
Dr. Jens Müffelmann, Head of the Electronic Media Division: "Within a few short years, Runtastic has developed into a profitable and leading provider of mobile apps worldwide, with a reputation for first-class product quality. With this investment, Axel Springer has ensured itself a strategic position in the dynamically growing market for smartphone apps. Through our reach and professional expertise in the sectors of sport and fitness, we see a whole range of synergies for the further development of Runtastic." Runtastic offers a combination of mobile sport apps and a web portal, on which sport data can be stored and administered, and individual training plans generated. In the meantime Runtastic is operating worldwide and has more than 90 employees. More than 19 million users are registered on Runtastic.com and more than 46 million Runtastic apps have been downloaded. More than 100,000 are currently being downloaded every day. Florian Gschwandtner, Runtastic founder and CEO: "The investment by Axel Springer creates the perfect conditions for us to effectively implement our strategic vision, which is to make Runtastic one of the internationally best known and most successful fitness brands. We are convinced that we will be able to develop our product portfolio and our customer base together even more quickly, and that both our business partners as well as our customers and our employees will benefit from the exchange of know-how with Axel Springer." By taking a majority holding in Runtastic, Axel Springer is expanding its digital sport portfolio around its core brands BILD, BILD am SONNTAG, SPORT BILD and WELT. Axel Springer acquired a majority stake in the transfermarkt.de football portal as early as 2008. BILD offers clips of highlights from 1st and 2nd Bundesliga matches on all bild.de digital channels from the 2013/2014 season.
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