South Korean multinational electronics company, Samsung, confirmed that it is not interested in buying the streaming service TIDAL, putting an end to rumors that a sale was in the works. A spokesperson for the company summed up the matter succinctly: “The rumor of Samsung acquiring Tidal is not true,” he said in an interview with Variety on Friday.
The revelation comes after rumors about such a deal reached a peak on February 25, when the New York Post published an article titled “Samsung is in talks to buy Tidal,” citing multiple sources. Public speculation on a possible deal began back in October, when TIDAL owner Jay Z visited Samsung’s Silicon Valley headquarters to meet with the company’s executives.
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TIDAL has sailed choppy waters since Jay Z bought the company for $56 million dollars in March of 2015. On top of struggling to attract customers and changing their CEO three times in that timespan, the company also recently fired both its CFO and COO within a few days of each other. Last week the company was hit with a $5 million dollar class action suit charging the company with copyright infringement and unpaid royalties.
In an interview with THUMP about the copyright lawsuit, analyst Richard Tullo of Albert Fried & Company commented on how it might affect Samsung’s purported intent to acquire TIDAL: “They don’t want to buy something that’s losing money presumably and then all of a sudden, turn around, and these guys are not paying their bills,” he said.
As of now, Samsung is not a significant competitor in the music streaming market. The streaming service Milk Music is its relatively unknown attempt to gain traction in that arena, and it is likely to soon close up shop, reports Variety.
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