European Commission clears Apple’s acquisition of Shazam

Apple may acquire Shazam from the European Commission. The EC has investigated the planned acquisition and has found no indications that Apple would harm competition after the acquisition.

The European Commission started the investigation in April in response to comments from seven Member States. The investigation focused on whether the acquisition would give Apple sensitive data from Shazam customers that could help Apple in the music streaming services market. That is not the case, says the Commission.

The Commission reasons in this respect that Shazam’s data is not unique and that competitors can easily access such databases with their own services. As a result, the competition through takeover is not lagging behind.

Apple confirmed in December last year that it plans to acquire Shazam. An acquisition price was not disclosed at the time. According to an earlier rumor, Apple is willing to put an amount of about 341 million euros on the table for Shazam. It is not entirely clear what Apple wants to do with Shazam’s music recognition, but in 2014 there was already a rumor that Apple wants to build the service into iOS. Now that the acquisition is complete, Apple is likely to acquire Shazam soon.