Apple Incorporated has purchased media app Shazam for around $400 million dollars, this number is significantly lower than the current $1.2 Billion which the app is valued at.
The app, about to be purchased for almost have a billion Dollars launched back in 1999, Shazam quickly became a hit, becoming one of the first apps available for download in Apple's app store back in 2008. The app has evolved massively since that point with constant updates which have included features such as seeing what music celebrities are listening too and allowing users to share the media which they are viewing.
Shazam raised a total of $140 million from several notable investors including; Sony Music, Universal Music and Kleiner Perkins. The app is currently thriving more than ever with a reported 1 billion downloads since the launch with the numbers only increasing over time.
Shazam has also integrated with other apps such as snap chat and Siri with the app creating a lot of traffic for other streaming services such as Deezer and Spotify. It is still unclear if the app will hold it's current direction once Apple has completed the purchase of if the tech giant will implement its own new feature to benefit rival services such as Apple Music.
Shazam is a media app which is used worldwide daily and has been for several years now, however, these impressive numbers don't necessarily boast the biggest and best profits, the company reported pre-tax losses of over $3 million last year. This doesn't come as a worry to the company CEO Rich Riley as he states he felt comfortable with the figures as the intention for the app at the moment is for it to continue it's steady growth rather than make the most money.
Riley further stated that now the app has strong growth it will become more attractive to larger investment groups and will be more likely for further acquisition - Good job Apple is about to grab the app with little competition.
However, Apple's track record with investments into corporations has been impressive over the last 5 years with the biggest accusation coming when the company purchased Beats for $3 Billion back in 2014, this was fundamental to the growth of Apple Music as it became the basis and hub for the service which is actively competing with other of its kinds such as Tidal and Spotify.
Time will tell if Apple's acquisition will help boost not only the apps continuous growth but also it's disappointing profits that we have seen over the past year.