Description
Peloton is an American exercise equipment and media company that was founded in 2012 and launched with help from a Kickstarter funding campaign in 2013. Based in New York City, Peloton's main products include a stationary bicycle and treadmill that allow monthly subscribers to remotely participate in classes that are streamed from the company's fitness studio. Much of the company's popularity stems from its now-celebrity fitness instructors, such as Robin Arzon, Ally Love, Alex Toussaint, and Jess King.
History
Peloton was founded by Graham Stanton, Hisao Kushi, John Foley, Tom Cortese, and Yony Feng in 2012. In January 2017, William J. Lynch Jr., former CEO of Barnes & Noble, joined Peloton as company President.
Co-founder and CEO John Foley spent 3 years pitching the company to thousands of potential investors, who rejected the idea. “No investors wanted to look at this thing. They wanted nothing to do with it,” Foley said in an interview.
In May 2018, Peloton announced plans to expand into Canada and the UK in fall 2018. In June 2018, Peloton acquired Neurotic Media, a music distributor.
In March 2019, Peloton was sued by the National Music Publishers Association for using copyrighted music in their videos without proper synchronization licenses, seeking $150 million in damages. The action resulted in changes to music used in its sessions, as well as removal of certain programs that used the songs that were specifically named in the suit. Users criticized these changes as affecting the quality of its product experience. In September 2019, the suit was amended and increased to $300 million.
In October 2019, Peloton acquired Tonic Fitness Technology, a Taiwanese manufacturing company for $47.4 million. In February 2020, Peloton announced that the competitor Flywheel would cease services at the end of the month, after it had settled with Peloton over a patent lawsuit. Peloton is offering exchanges for Flywheel Home bikes.
Peloton benefited from the lockdown measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a May 2020 estimate, its stock price increased by 36%, online searches for "Peloton" almost tripled since the end of February, and quarterly sales jumped nearly 61% to $420.2 million.
In December 2020, Peloton acquired Precor, a maker of home and commercial-grade workout machines, for $420 million from Amer Sports.
