Jay-Z Makes £37m Bid for Music Streaming Firm Aspiro
- Friday, January 30th, 2015
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First it was Dr Dres Beats Music service, which was purchased by Apple for £3bn (£1.9bn). Now, Jay-Z is making a move into the streaming music business with a kr464m (£37m) bid for Swedish firm Aspiro, which operates the WiMP Music and Tidal services and apps.
Project Panther, a company owned by the rappers S. Carter Enterprises, has bid to buy the company outright, and while the deal is subject to the shareholders agreeing, Aspiros board of directors is unanimously recommending the sale.
Aspiros WiMP is available in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Poland and Germany, while its Tidal service, available in the UK and US since October last year, offers higher fidelity streaming with superior sound quality to services like Spotify and Deezer. Aspiro also owns an enterprise-focused video content platform for publishers called RADR Music News.
As well as being one of the most recognisable stars of the music world, Jay-Z is an accomplished businessman with an estimated net worth of $520m, and interests in fashion, beauty, hospitality, sports and video games. If the deal for Aspiro goes through, no doubt many will be intrigued to see what his plans for the services are.