Dec 11, 2017
Apple confirms plans to buy music recognition app Shazam
Apple on Monday confirmed its plan to buy Shazam, the UK-based music recognition app, in its biggest acquisition since the iPhone maker's $3bn deal to buy Beats Electronics in 2014. A $400m price ranks Shazam alongside some of its largest deals in the past 20 years, including 2012's purchase of security company AuthenTec, which went on to power the iPhone's Touch ID system; PrimeSense, the Israeli maker of 3D scanning technology that helped to create the iPhone X's face-tracking and matching TrueDepth camera; and NeXT, the 1997 software deal that saw the late Steve Jobs return to the company he co-founded. Shazam, which is already integrated with Apple Music and the Siri virtual assistant as well as social media company Snapchat and Spotify, the streaming service, could help iPhone owners to discover the music they hear around them using its patented audio recognition system. "Since the launch of the App Store, Shazam has consistently ranked as one of the most popular apps for iOS. Today, it's used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, across multiple platforms." A sale to Apple ends a long period of speculation about Shazam's future, after it signalled plans for an initial public offering of at least $1bn back in 2013.
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