Aspiro has confirmed that it is scrapping its WiMP brand name, uniting its streaming music services around the globe under the Tidal banner.
Aspiro launched Wimp in 2010 across Scandinavia, offering both a standard and hi-def audio package to consumers.
Essentially the same service under a new name – possibly because of negative connotations surrounding the name ‘wimp’ in English – Tidal arrived in Europe last year.
Now, from March 30, all Aspiro services will be known as Tidal. The tidying up of its portfolio comes just in time for the arrival of a new owner, Project Panther Bidco, led by Jay Z.
Aspiro has this week successfully been approved to remove its shares from the Stockholm NASDAQ. Its last day of trading will be April 2.
Project Panther Bidco will pay €50m for the acquisition of Tidal. Its bid was eventually accepted by 95% of Aspiro shareholders, enough for PPB to buy the business according to the Swedish Companies Act.
PPB has given Aspiro until March 27 to ‘consider and accept’ its offer; but now the successful NASDAQ delisting application makes that deadline moot.
Aspiro AB posted a net loss of 84.1m SEK (€8.9m) for the last calendar year, off the back of a 22% increase in net revenues to 303.2m SEK (€31.9m).
Aspiro’s board of directors previously unanimously recommended accepting Jay Z’s offer, admitting that Tidal wasn’t profitable and “not fully funded for the coming 12 months”.
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