“The European Union approved Apple’s planned acquisition of British music discovery app Shazam on Thursday, saying an EU antitrust investigation showed it would not harm competition in the bloc,” Reuters reports.
“‘After thoroughly analyzing Shazam’s user and music data, we found that their acquisition by Apple would not reduce competition in the digital music streaming market,’ EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement,” Reuters reports. “The European Commission opened a full-scale investigation into the deal in April, emblematic of its recent worries that companies may buy a data-rich rival to mine it for information or drive others out of the market.”
Reuters reports, “Reuters last month reported sources saying that Apple was set to win unconditional EU antitrust approval for the deal following the probe requested by seven European countries including France, Italy, Spain and Sweden.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Gotta love it when a bunch of clueless politicians headed by a ditz are allowed to run roughshod through your company’s data and trade secrets. God only know who in the EU has seen what of Shazam’s data. Apple should get a discount price on the acquisition.
SEE ALSO:
Apple to gain unconditional EU approval for acquisition of Shazam – August 22, 2018
EU hits pause on Apple’s deal to buy Shazam – April 23, 2018
EU antitrust regulators to decide on Apple’s purchase of Shazam by April 23 – March 15, 2018
Why the EU Is holding up Apple’s Shazam acquisition – February 7, 2018
Why Apple bought Shazam – December 13, 2017
Apple’s $400 million purchase of Shazam: Good news or bad news for startups? – December 12, 2017
Shazam! Apple’s Siri gets better – December 11, 2017
Apple could be missing out on the smart home if they take too much longer to get things right – December 11, 2017
Why is Apple buying Shazam? – December 11, 2017
Apple said to acquire music recognition service Shazam – December 8, 2017
The EU is actually checking for anti-trust situations rather than allowing a free for all, or leaving it to the companies to police themselves – which many large companies clearly do not.
In this particular case, the EU investigated and were satisfied that no anti-trust regulations would be broken. They approved the deal.
I disagree with the tone of MDN’s take. It’s much better that the EU is independently investigating and trying to head off potential problems.
What’s to stop some government pencil-pusher from stealing Shazam’s trade secrets, now that they’ve pored through them during their “investigation,” and selling them to competitors or using them to start a competitor?
… integrity.
It may be an unfamiliar concept to some these days, but it’s still the norm in civilised parts of the world.
Thumbs up to that one.
alanaudio,
Bear in mind that you are dealing with Americans who apparently cannot recognize the irony in,
“Gotta love it when a bunch of clueless politicians headed by a ditz are allowed to run roughshod…”
Your blind faith in big government in general and the EU in particular is appalling.
Thank you Donald Tusk, Jean-Claude Juncker and Antonio Tajani.
Being British I personally detest the EU and can’t wait until March of next year when we finally leave this corrupt and unelected organisation.
We voted out and out we should be. 🇬🇧