Apple’s Purchase of Shazam Under Formal EU Investigation

Mike Sanders / 7 years ago

shazam

Apple Purchase Shazam

In December 2017, Apple successfully purchased the popular music app Shazam. The app itself, which began in 1999 quickly became popular as to the ‘go-to’ program for identifying what song you were listening to.

The purchase has, however, come under formal investigation from the EU as several countries have lodged complaints that the purchase may affect competition.

Competition Law

When we reported the purchase last month, I must admit, at the time nobody seemed too concerned about competition laws and as such the takeover seemed quite straightforward.

Since then, however, in a report via the Guardian, an inquiry into the purchase has been launched based on requests from Sweden, Spain, France, Austria, Iceland, Italy and Norway. shazam

EU Inquiry

Based on the numerous requests, a formal inquiry into the purchase has now been launched by the European Commission. The inquiry will have 35 days for initial enquiries and if enough evidence is found, a further 105 days to investigate further.

At this point, it is hard to say if any investigation will be successful, but it does at least put a dampener on the purchase by Apple.

What will happen?

It’s hard to say. Shazam was in itself a strange entity. Despite Apple purchasing it for a reported $400m, it didn’t actually make a lot of money. At least, not in relative terms. Such matters have seen the sale for $400m from a reported valuation in 2015 of $1b.

Personally, I didn’t have any issues with the purchase. There is, after all, plenty of Shazam alternatives and if anything, the purchase seemed to make a lot of business sense. We shall see what happens.

What do you think? Do you see any problems with the purchase? – Let us know in the comments!

Support eTeknix.com

By supporting eTeknix, you help us grow and continue to bring you the latest news, reviews, and competitions. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with the latest technology, share your favourite articles, chat with the team and more. Also check out eTeknix YouTube, where you’ll find our latest video reviews, event coverage and features in 4K!