Last month, there were reports that Apple was considering an acquisition of sports and music virtual-reality startup NextVR. Well, it’s happened.
Bloomberg says Apple has confirmed the deal, with its traditional ‘buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and generally does not discuss its purpose or plans’ response. It cites previous reports that the price may be around $100m, which given the company’s total funding of $115.5m indicates that this is very much NOT a triumphant exit.
It’s an interesting one though: NextVR’s business focused on live broadcasts in virtual reality of sports, music and entertainment events. Back in 2016, it struck a deal with Live Nation to work on VR concert broadcasts, and more recently in February 2019 it teamed up with Australian label Central Station to create VR music experiences. Be wary of jumping to ‘Apple is getting into musical VR in a big way’ conclusions though: the deal may well be about the tech and team, or more about NextVR’s sports business.
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