Will Zwift buy Wahoo?

An interesting review of how the two are working together finishing with a question of whether Zwift will buy Wahoo.

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I brought up this idea on an earlier thread. Given not only the current state of Wahoo, but the series of events leading us here, it feels more like they are circling the drain than regrouping to rise again.

So let me directly answer your direct question - I would put money on it. There is still value (and a following) for a large portion of the Wahoo content for none of the competitors to want the library at a minimum. Zwift just makes the most sense.

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I’d love to see a sneaky path out of Watopia and into Sufferlandria. If the right team worked on story lines and graphics then there could be some really cool things to find.
Forget the pacer bikes, your challenge is to stay ahead of the laser goats that are chasing you up Mount Sufferlandria.

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The reason I will never be on Zwift. I played the Nintendo of the 90’s. No need to revist those graphics decades later.

If Zwift is to purcase Wahoo and then no longer offers the training and videos available in the current SYSTM environment I will be gone faster than my 6yr old grandson when he twists the throttle on his KTM.

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The question is not if there will be a purchase but who will be buying who. I’m laying odds that Zwift will be the replacement fur RGT, and that Wahoo will remain in the end. There’s a need for more consolation in the indoor training space, and Ray has it just about right.

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But Ray was talking about the oodles of cash Zwift currently have that they need to spend so that direction would make sense.

And if Wahoo were interested, wouldn’t it have made sense for them to keep on at least some of the RGT staff as they would have a lot of skill that would drop straight into Zwift.

As to dropping RGT staff, they had to trim payroll and fast. It is always possible to bring folks back. Yes, it looks, on the surface, that Zwift would be buying Wahoo, but stranger things have happened. Been around for a while and some of the buyouts and sales can be very strange.

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DC wasn’t sure if Zwift still had all that cash, either. Zwift may not, especially if they’re still not turning a profit and advertising as heavily as they have been.

And if Wahoo IS making a profit then that equation could turn pretty quickly in favor of Wahoo.

And may end up more in a strategic partnership than a buyout, especially with the whole RGT debacle. May likely keep Wahoo from considering a wholesale buyout of Zwift for quite a while. And a lot can change pretty quickly.

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That’s exactly how I feel… I can’t stand the graphics

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In all the comments since Wahoo’s re-org, I have yet to read anyone talk about Wahoo getting back to its roots as a hardware company. So many feature requests have languished on the dev team’s “someday” list. Heck, even regular updates haven’t been happening.

To me, the company’s foray into entertainment has been a huge distraction from the company’s core business and they are trying now to re-focus and get back to basics.

If one is trying to read the tea leaves to determine if Wahoo is recovering or not, I suggest keeping an eye on the pace of software updates, troubleshooting of third party integrations and new hardware releases. If they become consistent again, it would be an indication that the company has focused its limited resources on being a premier hardware company.

I, for one, am hopeful that they succeed. I don’t want to see them sold off to Zwift or anyone else. That would just recreate the mess that the company just extracted itself from. As the computer industry has demonstrated, it is very difficult for one company to do a great job developing both hardware and software. They are better off focusing on one vertical only.

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@RitzMan Not sure I understand that comment. They just launched two new trainers.

Note that the company now has no debt so it seems to be in a much stronger position than last year. Here is an article in one of the trades from last summer that you might find helpful.

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Thanks for the article @JSampson. Interesting it doesn’t mention RGT. It mentions the company getting back to basics, which was the main point of my earlier post.

Two examples of needed third party integration would be native integration with the greenteg CORE body temperature monitor and Form swim goggles. Garmin has both. Fortunately, the Stryd run pod’s integration is pretty seamless now.

There’s a pretty long list of native Wahoo functionality fixes that the company can hopefully address now. One is consolidating at least two of the three apps, most probably the Wahoo app and the Elemnt app.

Another is upgrading the TICKR so it is as robust and reliable as the Polar H10. Even better if it could also be used under water like the Polar Verity Sense or OH1.

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+1 on that and make it a accurate so it can be used with the Elite HRV app

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For an HRM I would even accept them taking a reliable robust OEM design and Wahooifying it with integration in the app such as managing/firmware update/offline recording. In my mind they don’t have to do the hardware design and work.

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@RitzMan Yeah - I would definitely like to see that as well.

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Actually, I use a TICKR with EliteHRV. It doesn’t have the dropouts or spikes my Garmin HRM does. The issue is what the HRM is picking up. I think the TICKR is picking up and using atrial spikes and Garmin is using ventricular spikes. No matter if both are working I get with tolerance readings.

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My 5 year tickr never gave me problems only the strap has very bad springs and Im on my 4th or 5th strap so far and no more compatible straps available for the tickr v1 :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

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You can still get 3rd party straps that work with the Tickr v1 from a large online retailer that’s named after a river in Brazil.

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Can you PM the website?
Tks.

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Looks like all is not perfect in Zwift land:

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