While Samsung is mostly known for its many hardware products including its Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets, the South Korean tech giant also invests considerably into R&D towards software services, and it looks like its most recent acquisition delves into music-streaming territory. With that in mind, Samsung revealed that it recently added a new digital service platform to its roster via its acquisition of Roon. The announcement was made via an official post through Samsung’s website.
More specifically, the acquisition was done through Samsung’s Harman brand, which focuses on the development of audio-visual technologies. Samsung says that the acquisition of Roon plays into Harman’s ‘work with all’ strategy, a collaborative effort which will see Harman working with several audio brands on technologies for a wide variety of hardware.
Roon’s app essentially works to provide users with a music platform, allowing users to explore music in addition to accessing their favourite tunes and artists. Roon also works with a variety of audio hardware, operating systems, as well as Nucleus, which is a line of hardware server appliances. Speaking about the new acquisition, Harman’s Dave Rogers states:
“At HARMAN we take great pride in our ability to create exceptional audio experiences for our partners and consumers around the world. The team at Roon shares our passion in bringing exceptional sound and connectivity to music lovers as they browse, discover, and listen at home and on the go. We are looking forward to welcoming Roon, whose impressive talent will join the HARMAN family and bolster our already robust engineering capabilities.”
Roon is likewise looking forward to the union with Harman and Samsung – CEO Enno Vandermeer comments:
“Our team is ecstatic to join HARMAN, a visionary company that has been leading the audio industry forward for decades. By combining forces with HARMAN, Roon gains the incredible scale, resources, and reach of a global technology leader, while maintaining our independence to invest in the business’s growth and future. We look forward to continuing to bring our advanced data management, SaaS expertise, and consumer engagement capabilities to our broad ecosystem of partners, as we join forces with HARMAN to deliver even greater audio experiences to our customers.”
Amidst the acquisition, Harman clarifies that Roon will continue as a standalone Harman business with its existing team. Additionally, Roon operations will remain in place and continue to work with current device partners and customers. Roon developed its first product back in 2004, and has since worked on technologies to provide listeners with convenient ways to listen to their music, with Roon Labs being established later on in 2015. The Roon team has previously worked alongside brands such as Sooloos, Meridian Audio, as well as HP.
