Jay Z has completed his acquisition of streaming services Tidal and WiMP, after the company's shareholders approved his bid to buy Swedish company Aspiro, Billboard reports.
It looked like the acquisition had hit a snag when a group of minority shareholders who control 10% of Aspiro were preparing to reject the takeover bid. But the group had a change of heart and later decided to accept Jay Z's bid.
There are still some legal steps to go through, though. The negotiation period ended at 4pm UK time on Wednesday, but Aspiro tells us that Jay Z's company has until Monday to officially announce the acquisition.
News of Jay Z's bid to buy Aspiro was first reported in January when his company, Project Panther Bidco, revealed its $56 million offer for the Swedish tech company.
Here's the statement that Jay Z's company published along with its initial offer for Aspiro:
Panther believes that the recent
developments in the entertainment industry, with the migration to music
and media streaming, offers great potential for increased entertainment
consumption and an opportunity for artists to further promote their
music. Panther's strategic ambition revolves around global expansion and
up-scaling of Aspiro's platform, technology and services.
Aspiro, parent company of streaming sites WiMP and Tidal, isn't
especially well-known outside of the audiophile community. There are two
main things it does different to rival streaming sites like Spotify: It
offers streaming of lossless, high-resolution music, as well as curated
playlists.Aspiro CEO Andy Chen told us in an interview that fans of high-resolution music were excited by the launch of WiMP and Tidal. "When the news came out that we were offering lossless hi-fi streaming, the news more or less travelled by itself in the audiophile world," he said.
We asked Chen whether he's concerned by the news that Apple is building a potential Tidal killer:
My personal philosophy is that for
anybody who has run a tech business, or is in a sector that’s highly
competitive, I think what you do is, you will never end up building
anything if you spend too much time just identifying the fears coming
from the larger competitors. Apple is Apple. Apple is huge. Apple is
going to do whatever Apple wants to do ... We observe and look at what
they want to do.
Streaming sites are big business in northern Europe. And that's
especially true for countries like Sweden. The latest data from
the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) shows
that streaming music sales make up 80% of recorded music income in Sweden.
Chapisha Maoni
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