Shazam, the music, T.V. shows and movies finding app, is going to be acquired by the tech giant, Apple. Through this takeover, Apple is looking at acquiring Shazam’s music and sound recognition software. Once the deal goes through, Apple will be positioned as a bigger force to be reckoned with than it already is.
The deal, which could be announced as soon as next week, is expected to value the company at around $400 million, according to three people familiar with the deal. This price would be a significant discount from its last round of funding, which valued the company at around $1 billion. The company has raised at least $140 million since 2002.
Shazam used to have an edge in the market by being the only company which enabled users to discover new material. Now, however, it has become extremely easy for anyone to replicate this app, thereby making Shazam obsolete.
Apple benefits in a lot of ways from making this purchase. By completely taking over Shazam, Apple not only gets control over the 1 million daily subscribers Shazam has but it also gets control over Shazam’s augmented and unique technology.
With over 1 billion downloads since its foundation, Shazam has been popular in its nearly 19 years of independence. Unfortunately, the company only pulled in $54 million as revenue in 2016, while losing $5.3 million through the year. This was a signal that the company still had a long way to go. Now as a part of Apple, turning a profit won’t be an issue.
Shazam has already been integrated into the Apple Software. This acquisition could help bolster Apple’s music efforts by making it easier for users to find songs and add them to playlists in their Apple Music service. As of mid 2017, Apple Music had 27 million subscribers, behind rival music streaming service Spotify’s 60 million users.
With over 1 billion downloads since its launch, Shazam has been extremely popular in this field. Unfortunately, it lost a huge amount of its revenue in the year 2016 by losing over $ 3 million in revenue in the last financial quarter. This take over by Apple comes at a ripe time, giving users a wider range of options.