Shazam! EU gives Apple go-ahead for music app takeover
Apple was given the green light for its planned takeover of popular song-recognition app Shazam by the European Union today.
The tech giant got the go-ahead to acquire Shazam, which identifies songs played within range of a smartphone, from an EU antitrust investigation that said the takeover would not harm competition in the bloc.
A full-scale investigation into the deal was launched in April amid global fears that tech giants would use their market power to gain an unfair dominance and buy data-rich rivals in a bid to mine them for information.
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However, EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who made the headlines back in July after slapping Google with a £4bn fine, said: "After thoroughly analysing Shazam’s user and music data, we found that their acquisition by Apple would not reduce competition in the digital music streaming market."
Vestager added: "Data is key in the digital economy. We must therefore carefully review transactions which lead to the acquisition of important sets of data, including potentially commercially sensitive ones."
Apple has its own digital music streaming service, Apple Music, which reportedly boasts around 42m paying subscribers.
The news comes a day after Twitter and Facebook were grilled by lawmakers on Capitol Hill over steps taken to clamp down on foreign interference in the 2016 US election.
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