Apple finally acquired everyone’s favorite music app Shazam on Monday, after reports of a deal negotiation surfaced last Friday.
The price tag is rumored it to be around $400m, which would mean a major discount from the Shazam’s last valuation, listed at $1B.
Daaang, what happened?
Shazam started in 1999 as a service where people could call a phone number, hold the receiver up to a source of music, and be texted the name of the song and its artist.
Then in 2008, they launched an iPhone app that could name just about any song in a matter of seconds.
Unfortunately, like many revolutionary companies, Shazam’s bread-and-butter technology is now attainable for anyone with a few engineers and a mattress full of cash.
In 2016, Shazam only made $54m in revenue, forcing them to slap their name on a game show hosted by Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx (not sure who the biggest sellout is here).
But being part of the world’s most profitable company ain’t a bad gig
And word on the street is it’s great timing for Apple, too: they’re only months away from releasing their new HomePod smart speaker, so they’re hoping Shazam will OG music-recognition tech to compete with juggernauts, Google and Amazon.