Some acquisitions are so stealthy, they don’t get reported on until months later. Such was the case with Twitter and We Are Hunted early last year, and now with audio/fitness tech company Jawbone’s purchase of social radio app Playground.fm. TechCrunch reported the rumour yesterday that Playground.fm had been acquired for an “over eight figures” sum by Jawbone, then secured confirmation from the latter company that the deal happened last year. What’s intriguing here is what Jawbone has planned for Playground.fm. As we reported when it launched in late 2012, the app was a social music playlists service for people to “instantly listen to a personalised selection of music from your friends, world famous DJs, and music lovers just like you” (Bulletin, 12-Oct-12). Jawbone makes the Jambox range of speakers, so it seems likely it’s preparing its own streaming music service to go with them, based on Playground.fm.
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Tools: Kaiber
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