Apple Officially Confirms Lala Acquisition

Consumer giant Apple has officially confirmed to a number of technology news outlets that it has acquired struggling online music streaming startup, Lala for an undisclosed amount.

Lala's website has not been updated yet to reflect the sale nor have its owners return requests for comment from a number of journalists. Also, it is not known, at this point whether Apple will continue to keep Lala running as it currently stands.

Apple is reportedly more interested in the technology that powers the website and in the expertise of the management team that runs it, than in the site's userbase.

Cnet says that Apple could use Lala's already mature proprietary payment and delivery systems to save itself some serious money in terms of R&D and time-to-market costs.

The service - which is currently US only - allows its users to upload their tracks online and play them from anywhere for free. In addition, they can stream unlimited songs for once, purchase unlimited streams per song for 10 cents and buy songs outright for 79 cents.

Lala’s investors include, amongst others, Bain Capital Ventures, Ignition Partners and Warner Music and it is rumoured that they stand at making a loss in the transaction.