Apple has bought Shazam, the maker of a song-recognition app that Apple's digital assistant Siri has already been using to help people identify the music playing on their iPhones.
The companies didn't disclose the price of the acquisition announced Monday. Technology news site Recode previously reported Apple is paying about $400 million for Shazam, citing three unidentified people familiar with the deal.
Apple Inc. issued a statement describing Shazam as "natural fit" with its services.
"We have exciting plans in store, and we look forward to combining with Shazam," Apple said. The Cupertino, California, company declined to say whether Shazam's app will still be available after the deal closes.
Some of Shazam's features conceivably could be blended into Apple's music streaming services, which has accumulated more than 27 million subscribers since the company created it in 2015.
Siri began drawing upon Shazam's technology to answer questions about songs as part of a 2014 update to the iPhone's operating system.
The Shazam deal marks Apple's biggest acquisition in music since paying $3 billion for Beats Electronics' line of headphones and music service in 2014.
Digital services have been playing an increasingly important role for Apple as the sales of iPhones — the company's main moneymaker — have slowed. Software and other services generated $30 billion in revenue during Apple's last fiscal year, a 23 percent increase from the previous year.
Shazam was founded in 2002 and made one of the first apps for the iPhone. It has about 250 employees working at its London headquarters and seven other offices in the U.S., Australia and Germany.
California governor signs law to protect children from social media addiction
California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent beginning in 2027 under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday.
California follows New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their kids from getting social media posts suggested by a platform's algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children's access to social media, but they have faced challenges in court.
The California law will take effect in a state home to some of the largest technology companies in the world. Similar proposals have failed to pass in recent years, but Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law in 2022 barring online platforms from using users' personal information in ways that could harm children. It is part of a growing push in states across the country to try to address the impacts of social media on the well-being of children.
"Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night," Newsom said in a statement. "With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits."
The law bans platforms from sending notifications without permission from parents to minors between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays from September through May, when children are typically in school. The legislation also makes platforms set children's accounts to private by default.
Opponents of the legislation say it could inadvertently prevent adults from accessing content if they cannot verify their... Read More