DENVER—Imagine Communications has announced that it is deepening its commitment to the North American sports and live events market with investments in its product portfolio and in its staff.

As part of that effort, it has promoted of Jimbo Haneklau to vice president of sales, sports and live events and the hired of Sophee Mink to the newly established position of business solution associate, sports and live events.

OPPO is introducing the Watch X2 Mini, a compact wearable device that integrates continuous health monitoring and professional-grade fitness tracking. The device will be available in Latin America, Asia-Pacific, the European Union, the Middle East and Africa. It will be launched in Mexico at MX$6,199 (US$330.6).

“The OPPO Watch X2 Mini brings intelligent wellness tracking to a smaller form factor without compromising capability,” says the company. OPPO is positioning the device as both a consumer fitness product and a personal health management tool. It supports over 100 exercise modes and offers biometric monitoring features intended to provide early indicators of physical and emotional stress.

Equipped with 24-hour heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring, the device applies proprietary algorithms to deliver continuous data collection and risk assessment. A multidimensional sleep monitoring system tracks rest quality, and analyzes respiratory patterns to flag potential disruptions, contributing to early detection efforts in sleep-related conditions. The device includes a new “Mind and Body Evaluation” that aggregates HRV, resting heart rate, activity level, and sleep metrics to present an overview of emotional and physical fatigue.

The Watch X2 Mini also integrates features typically associated with clinical-grade wearables, such as fall detection (configurable manually) and menstrual cycle tracking. These functions support user-led health management in daily environments, with visual feedback provided through customizable animated watch faces designed to encourage behavioral change.

OPPO has expanded its data capabilities with a Pro Running Mode that tracks running form metrics — such as ground contact time, stride length, and lateral balance — used in physiotherapy and sports science. A new Fat Burn Evaluation tool enables users to maintain real-time heart rate within optimal zones for weight loss, a function aligned with evidence-based training practices.

The hardware architecture uses dual chipsets — Snapdragon® W5 and BES2800BP — to toggle between Wear OS and a power-saving RTOS mode, extending battery life up to 60 hours in standard usage. Fast charging via Watch VOOC Flash Charging provides a full day of use after 10 minutes of charging.

Additional integrations include Google Wallet for contactless payments, Google Maps for real-time navigation, and YouTube Music for offline playback. The device is also expected to support Gemini, Google’s generative AI assistant, in future updates—suggesting deeper potential for personalized health insights.

LEXINGTON — The NFHS has announced a new three-year corporate partnership with Game Day Signals as the Official and Exclusive Baseball and Softball Coach-to-Catcher Electronic Communication Device Partner of the NFHS.

This partnership marks a significant milestone in enhancing communication, reducing sign-stealing, and streamlining game flow for high school baseball and softball programs across the country. Game Day Signals’ cutting-edge wearable technology allows coaches to send pitch calls and strategy instructions directly to catchers using an encrypted, wireless communication system—replacing traditional hand signals with a faster, more secure method.

“We are excited to partner with Game Day Signals, a recognized leader in the electronic communication system industry, to enhance the communication tools available to our high school baseball and softball programs across the country and further our commitment to equipping coaches and teams with the latest game-enhancing equipment,” said Chief Executive Officer Karissa Niehoff. “This partnership represents an important step forward in empowering teams with innovative solutions that streamline in-game communication.”

“This collaboration marks a significant milestone in our shared commitment to equipping coaches and teams with cutting-edge tools to enhance in-game communication,” said Erica Beers, President & CEO of GameDay Signals. “We have always viewed the NFHS as an ideal partner, and we couldn’t be more excited to join forces with them. This partnership reinforces our mutual dedication to innovation and the continued evolution of coaching strategies.”

Game Day Signals’ easy-to-use system has already been embraced by teams nationwide for its simplicity, reliability and ability to reduce confusion on the field. The NFHS partnership will help bring this innovation to more high school teams while reinforcing best practices for communication and sportsmanship.

A new type of deal has swept through Silicon Valley in the past year or so, driven by the AI boom and antitrust limitations.

I call these transactions “acquihires on steroids,” and they have some of the unsavory flavor of steroid use in sports. If you’re a Big Tech company, you can’t do big acquisitions as easily anymore because of antitrust scrutiny. So, instead, you pay handsomely to hire the top talent and license the technology, leaving the remaining business and employees to soldier on alone.

Crucially, Big Tech is not technically acquiring these startups, so the deals are not subject to the same antitrust rules. Depending on who you ask, the attorneys who devised this way to avoid the spirit of US law should either be awarded a Nobel Prize for business or imprisoned.

Remains of the prey

I’m not here to judge that. I’m focusing on what happens to the remains of these startups — and why the latest example, Windsurf, differs from the rest of these big, gnarly acquihires.

OpenAI planned to buy Windsurf for $3 billion. The deal fell apart, and instead, Google paid $2.4 billion to hire Windsurf cofounder Varun Mohan and other senior researchers and purchase a Windsurf license.

For a day or so, it looked like the remaining Windsurf business and staff would be cast to the wind, so to speak. Similar acquihires of Inflection, Character.ai, and Scale AI have left the remains of those startups floundering. For instance, an unprofitable Scale AI cut hundreds of jobs this week after Meta hired away its CEO, Alexandr Wang, in a $14 billion deal.

A different outcome for Windsurf

Windsurf’s story took a different turn. Another AI startup, Cognition, quickly snapped up the Windsurf remnants. Why? The answer relates to one of the main ingredients for success in generative AI: data.

You need AI talent, for sure. This is the main reason Google paid so much for a handful of Windsurf leaders and researchers. You also need infrastructure, including GPUs, data centers, and huge amounts of electricity. Tech giants spend hundreds of billions on that.

The third ingredient, data, is less talked about. That’s because AI companies don’t want to pay for data, so they pretend it’s not that important. Yet data is crucial for AI model development, and it’s a real reason the remains of Windsurf were bought so swiftly.

The IDEs of July

Windsurf’s main product is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). IDEs are coding tools installed on developers’ computers — a bit like PowerPoint for writing software. They have become the go-to interface between professional programmers and their code.

When Cognition CEO Scott Wu announced the Windsurf deal this week, he described the main assets he’s getting — and put Windsurf’s IDE at the top of the list. He wrote that combining that product with the “rapid adoption” of its AI software engineering assistant, Devin, will be a “massive unlock.”

Windsurf CEO Jeff Wang highlighted the same point, saying the combination of Congition’s autonomous coding agents with Windsurf’s IDE will lead to “breakthrough developer experiences.”

Unique, granular data model fine-tuning

IDEs are valuable in AI because they provide a massive stream of unique, granular data on how human developers write, fix, ship, and update software code, said Armando Solar-Lezama, a distinguished professor of computing at MIT.

“This is why you’re seeing so much dealmaking activity around some of these startups,” he told me in an interview this week.

Big Tech and AI companies aim to make AI models really good at coding. Solar-Lezama said that one way to stand out is to use the data from IDEs in the post-training phase of AI model development.

At a high level, building AI models involves two main stages:

The first is pretraining, where tech companies vacuum up all the data on the internet and use it in huge training runs so the models learn a general understanding of how the world works. Everyone has already stripmined the web for this information, so there’s not much advantage to be gained here in the AI race anymore. It’s table stakes.

Then comes the second stage, known as post-training, that fine-tunes AI models and polishes away bad behavior while giving them their distinctive style. This is where things differ from company to company, and you get custom, proprietary approaches, Solar-Lezama said.

“All these companies, once they have exhausted all the data on the internet, there’s no second internet to mine for data. They are all hunting for alternative data sources,” he said. “One of the big advantages of IDE companies like Cursor and Windsurf — they have access to a rich stream of data that some AI model providers don’t get to see directly.”

An IDE provider like Windsurf can see every keystroke and every time programmers run their code, as well as how they run it and how they debug it, through the IDEs installed on developers’ computers.

“This provides unique access to a lot of information about what people are doing with their code, versus just what they might enter into the prompt box of a more simple coding website — that’s a lot less,” Solar-Lezama said.

The big AI companies often provide the underlying models that power IDE products. For instance, Anthropic models mostly power Windsurf’s IDE. However, these AI labs may have access to less detailed coding data.

“IDEs have a level of granularity that’s impossible to get any other way,” Solar-Lezama said.

Sign up for BI’s Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@busienssinsider.com.

Advance Sports, an executive search, talent strategy and HR consulting firm launched by former Comcast Spectacor executive Pete Powell last year, is joining Phoenix Sports Partners’ portfolio of companies upon Phoenix acquiring Ventnor Ventures, an early backer of Advance and the firm’s controlling shareholder. Powell is Advance’s only full-time employee and will, along with contractors, transition to Phoenix post-acquisition. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Pre-acquisition, the Chicago-based Phoenix was Advance’s biggest client, including Advance placing Phoenix portfolio company LeagueSpot’s COO. Phoenix’s portfolio, which focuses on early-stage youth sports and sports technology companies, also includes football tackling analytics firm Atavus, visual training platform Vizual Edge and mobile concession-ordering platform FanFood.

Life Fitness’ machines are pleasing to any gym goer, both functionally and visually — and both matter more than you might think.

Even with concepts like functional wellness and mental health picking up steam, there will always be a place in fitness for things that “look good.” That’s true for  individuals themselves as well as the places where they work out. 

While Life Fitness has been in the business of the former since its inception, including emerging wellness sectors, its concentration on gym design and aesthetics is now abundant as well with each being key engagement boosters. 

“In recent years, we’ve seen fitness transform from a purely functional space into a lifestyle experience, especially in the hospitality sector,” said Travis Hoppe, Regional Segment Manager at Life Fitness. “This shift has been driven by heightened consumer expectations for immersive wellness environments, the influence of boutique fitness studios and a growing emphasis on wellness as a pillar of luxury travel.”

It’s an industry-wide shift that everyone should watch closely. 

“For hotel brands, multi-family developers and premium fitness operators, the gym is now an extension of brand identity,” Hoppe added. “As a result, aesthetics, ambiance and spatial harmony are just as important as performance — and equipment is expected to reflect that balance.” 

Life Fitness not only understands that, but is acting on that insight through its manufacturing process and B2B operational strategy. 

Life Fitness’ Approach

Life Fitness drives engagement by creating aesthetically appealing products that integrate seamlessly into premium spaces without sacrificing functionality.

“The most prominent example of this evolution is our Symbio cardio line, which reimagines traditional cardio equipment with a refined, sculptural aesthetic,” said Hoppe. 

The Symbio line includes treadmills, cross-trainers, upright bikes and recumbent bikes, featuring tools like Adaptive Flex Deck Technology for customized running surfaces, on-demand exercise options, muscle activation visuals and connectivity between machines for trackable, personalized workouts. 

But as Hoppe noted, these products have the beauty to match their brains. The Symbio line also features organic curves, customizable finishes and minimalist digital interfaces.

“This makes it ideal for high-design environments like boutique hotels and wellness resorts,” Hoppe said. “Since its debut, Symbio has been embraced by luxury hospitality partners and developers looking to differentiate their fitness offerings. Early feedback from flagship installations has been overwhelmingly positive, with user engagement metrics showing increased dwell time on cardio machines and improved satisfaction scores for wellness amenities.”

Performance hasn’t been overlooked in the process.

 Hoppe called the balance between durability and design “central” during the Symbio line’s development. Life Fitness walked the tightrope by using premium materials, testing extensively in commercial environments and designing for intuitive use to meet the expectations of both casual hotel guests and seasoned fitness enthusiasts.  

“While aesthetics drive first impressions, performance drives long-term value — and we never compromise on that,” said Hoppe. “Symbio’s internal engineering is built on the foundation of Life Fitness’  proven biomechanics, reliability and digital connectivity. We’ve simply wrapped  that performance core in a more refined, hospitality-forward exterior.”

Behind the Blueprint

Delivering these aesthetically pleasing, functional fitness machines requires a group effort. Life Fitness partners directly with architects, interior designers and developers early in the design process to set itself and its clients up for success.

“This allows us to align equipment aesthetics with the overall interior design scheme — whether it’s through finish customization, spatial layout planning or integration with AV and lighting systems,” said Hoppe. 

See Also

For the Symbio line, Life Fitness offers tailored surface and frame options, allowing designers to create fitness spaces that feel like natural extensions of a property’s style rather than an afterthought. 

New Projects & New Goals

Hyatt represents one of the many brands benefitting from this careful crafting process and strategic implementation from Life Fitness. Last year, the brand made a series of installations at the Hyatt Regency in Downtown Chicago. 

“From the beginning, we collaborated closely with Hyatt’s wellness and design teams to ensure the cardio equipment supported the property’s elevated guest experience,” Hoppe said. “Symbio equipment contributed to creating an elevated experience and an environment that feels worlds apart from the traditional gym aesthetic.”

As Life Fitness aims to do this for more partners now and in the future, it understands brands are looking for products that meet their specific needs through greater customization, taking aesthetics and integration strategies to an entirely new level. 

“Design customization is already reshaping the expectations around fitness equipment, especially in premium and lifestyle-driven environments,” Hoppe said. “As personalization becomes more central to wellness, operators want fitness spaces that reflect their brand ethos — whether that’s through color, texture or technology integration.”

Through its established manufacturing principles, systems of operation and experience, the brand is eager to meet these new demands. Hoppe reports Life Fitness is already investing in modular design platforms, sustainable materials and custom finishes, with the Symbio line serving as a blueprint. 

“Customization will no longer be a premium feature — it will be the baseline for operators who want to create differentiated, high-touch lifestyle experiences,” he added.