LONDON (Alliance News) - Fitness and wellbeing products and technology company Fitbug Holdings PLC on Wednesday said its pretax loss for the second half will be wider than the first due to tough trading in the US, and it said it has entered talks with rival Fitbit Inc over the claims between the two companies.
AIM-listed Fitbug said trading in the second half of 2015 was hurt by the retail environment in the US. It said pretax losses for the second half will be wider than in the first, when Fitbug made a pretax loss of GBP3.2 million, which itself had been twice the interim loss the year before.
Fitbug said Anna Gudmundson, who took over as chief executive in August, has taken action to address the performance of the underlying business and said its focus will be on developing the Kiqplan health and fitness coaching platform, the future of which it remains confident in.
Fitbug also said it has entered into talks with Fitbit Inc, its much-larger US competitor, over the claims Fitbug has made against Fitbit.
Fitbug has accused Fitbit of infringing its trademark and of anti-competitive behaviour. Fitbug also is working on separate trademark infringement claims in the UK and Europe against Fitbit, in addition to a US claim which was denied by a California court in February.
Fitbug shares were down 27% to 0.780 pence on Wednesday afternoon, the worst performer in the AIM All-Share and setting a new 52-week low.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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