Reports want Apple to be in the final stages of an agreement with the Shazam Music Finder.
According to initial reports from TechCrunch, the deal could be formally announced on Monday. If it does eventually, the redemption price will be about 400 million dollars, a number that confirmed and Recode a bit later. This means a significant discount for a business worth about 1 billion dollars.
Shazam, since the foundation of 2002, has accumulated at least 140 million dollars.
Reports on the acquisition of the company follow previous rumors about Snapchat. Snap made a deal late last year that allowed Snapchatters to use the Shazam service to find song artists through the app. In the end, however, Apple seems to have won. It is currently unclear whether the new agreement will affect these earlier agreements.
As for the reason behind the acquisition, there are no official statements yet - or any official confirmation from either party.
From Apple's perspective, the benefits there will be many. The most obvious gain for Apple, although it seems small for a company the size of Apple, is that it will no longer give commissions for users sent to iTunes to buy music through the service.
However, a more tangible benefit could come in the form of additional pressure on competing services such as Spotify and Google Play Music. According to a publication by Wall Street Journal, Shazam ships about a million clickof the day only on Spotify.
And as mentionedsignalνε το The Verge, τα μεγαλύτερα οφέλη μπορεί να συνδέονται με την τεχνολογία επαυξημένης πραγματικότητας που ετοιμάζει η πλατφόρμα της Shazam.
Earlier this year the company launched an AR platform based on a technology introduced by 2015. This technology allows users to scan natural products such as magazines, books and ads to get additional information, such as Google Lens.
This could be a reaction by Apple to catch up characteristics that are being prepared for the Pixel 2 which will make heavy use of Google Lens technology.
