Apple swallows $50m Tech City music startup
A SHOREDITCH-based music data firm has been quietly snapped up by tech giant Apple in a deal estimated to be worth $50m (£33m).
Fresh from its $3bn takeover of Dr Dre’s Beats headphone brand, it was yesterday revealed that Apple has taken over Semetric in a deal believed to have occurred last year.
The move is the strongest sign yet that Apple is moving its focus back to music, a field in which its once-dominant iTunes has failed to keep pace with the move towards streaming music pioneered by the likes of Spotify and Deezer.
Semetric, founded in 2008, provides analytics around online music, from streaming to online sales. Apple is expected to use its Musicmetric tool as part of plans to relaunch the Beats Music streaming service later this year.
Semetric is one of an elite group of London startups absorbed into US tech giants. A year ago Google paid $400m for artificial intelligence company DeepMind Technologies. Days later, Farmville creator Zynga paid $527m for NaturalMotion, a games developer with offices in the City.
Semetric itself completed a £3m funding round in January 2013, and at the time planned to expand into new areas including ebooks, TV, films and games.
“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plan,” said Apple.