The European Commission announced today the initiation of an investigation aimed at finding out if the acquisition of Shazam by Apple it will affect competition in the industry. Investigation requests came from Austria, France, Italy, Iceland, Norway, Spain and Sweden, so we are talking about extremely high interest to check if there are problems with the purchase.
CE wants to discover if there is a chance that other European companies with a similar profile to that of Shazam could be affected by this extremely important acquisition announced by Apple. In general, almost all such important acquisitions are first investigated by the authorities before being approved, and what is happening now should not be surprising.
I think that even Apple, or Shazam, expected that at some point there would be an investigation regarding the companies' intentions to merge in 2018. The Apple company announced last year that it wanted to buy Shazam, so it was expected that in the months they should start an investigation to check if the purchase will negatively affect the competition on the market.
"On the basis of the elements submitted by Austria and the countries joining the referral request, and without prejudice to the outcome of its full investigation, the Commission considers that the transaction may have a significant adverse effect on competition in the European Economic Area. The Commission has also concluded that it is the best placed authority to deal with the potential cross-border effects of the transaction."
If the European Commission decides that the acquisition of Shazam by Apple will affect the ability of other companies to compete in the industry, then it will be blocked. Shazam is a British company, and Britain is still in the EU, so Apple and Shazam have to convince the European Commissioner for competition of their good intentions.
