Apple has more cash on hand than any other company on the planet, and some of that cash may go towards acquiring Shazam.
Image: Gizmodo
TechCrunch is reporting that Apple is “close to acquiring Shazam”, which is frustratingly vague. It could be a done deal or Apple could have called Shazam’s people up yesterday.
If you’re like me and haven’t used it since about 2007, than you might have forgotten that Shazam is an app that figures out what song is playing in your current environment. The app has been around since 1999, when it launched in the UK and was used by texting a specific phone number.
Now, with over one billion downloads (as of September 2016), Shazam is one of the larger music apps available, and its current incarnation allows for a wide range of methods of music discovery – something Apple might be particularly keen on as it continues to bolster its own music service, Apple Music. Google already has its own version music discovery service available in Google Assistant-enabled phones, too. So this acquisition would give Apple’s Siri an easy services win.
According to TechCrunch’s anonymous sources Shazam could be acquired for less than the $US1.02 billion ($1.36 billion) valuation it received back in 2015.
We reached out to Shazam for comment but had not heard back at time of writing. Apple declined to comment.