3 Buys Into Spotify, Puts INQ Chairman On Board

Author	Gordon Kelly
Published	24th Aug 2009

3 Buys Into Spotify, Puts INQ Chairman On Board

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Looks like the 3 Spotify rumours were correct...

3 owner Hutchison Whampoa has announced it has taken a stake in current industry darling and streaming music service Spotify. No official figures have been put to the deal, but the company is currently valued at approximately $250m with $50m said to have been invested.

The knock on effect is considerable. Hutchison also owns INQ mobile and has chosen to give INQ chairman Frank Meehan a place on Spotify's board which will surely lead to considerable speculation that INQ handsets will soon benefit from a native Spotify application. Such a development would also nicely fit in with INQ's long promoted message of social and multimedia integration and multitasking.

Furthermore, the INQ1 was launched with native Last.fm support - something that has been dropped for the INQ Mini 3G and INQ Chat 3G. Coincidence? Possibly, but unlikely.

As for Spotify itself, despite the investment, it would suggest the company will retain its independence with both Spotify iPhone and Spotify Android apps already in development. Cleverly, the move does put pressure on the likes of Apple and Google to approve the Spotify apps since failure to do so will almost certainly now give the fledgling INQ brand a real market differentiator.

Interesting indeed...

Links:
via Forbes
via Pocket Lint