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read more</s>Apple announced Monday it is buying digital magazine subscription service Texture, adding to the side of its business aimed at making money from online content or services.

[SAN FRANCISCO] Apple announced Monday it is buying digital magazine subscription service Texture, adding to the side of its business aimed at making money from online content or services.

The iPhone maker did not disclose financial terms of the deal to buy Texture from its owners - publishers Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, Rogers Media and global investment firm KKR.

Texture gives subscribers unlimited access to more than 200 magazines, such as Forbes, Esquire, GQ, Wired, People, The Atlantic and National Geographic for a US$10 monthly fee.

"We're excited Texture will join Apple, along with an impressive catalog of magazines from many of the world's leading publishers," Apple senior vice president of internet software and service Eddy Cue said in a statement.

"We are committed to quality journalism from trusted sources and allowing magazines to keep producing beautifully designed and engaging stories for users." The Texture application launched in 2012, the product of a joint venture created two years earlier.

"We could not imagine a better home or future for the service," Texture chief executive John Loughlin said.

Despite Apple's spectacular trajectory in the decade since the introduction of the iPhone, the California technology titan is facing challenges on whether it can continue growth.

While iPhone sales are at the heart of Apple's money-making machine, the company has taken to spotlighting revenue from the App Store, iCloud, Apple Music, iTunes and other content and services people tap into using its devices.

Texture could add digital magazine subscription revenue to that lineup.

Apple reported that it finished last year with cash reserves of US$285 billion - much of that stashed overseas.

The company said it would bring back most of its profits from abroad to take advantage of a favorable tax rate in legislation approved by Congress last year.

The repatriation will result in a tax bill of about US$38 billion, while also freeing up big chunks of money for investment.</s>Apple Inc. said it is acquiring Texture, a digital magazine service that lets users subscribe to more than 200 magazines for $9.99 a month.

Texture, offered via the app stores of Apple, Google and Amazon.com Inc., bolsters Apple’s efforts in online services and media. The Cupertino, California, company aims to top US$50 billion in annual services revenue by 2021, and a magazine subscription service would likely contribute to that.

Texture’s magazine catalog includes Entertainment Weekly, Billboard, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Bloomberg Businessweek. The app is currently run by Next Issue Media LLC, owned by a group of publishers and other companies including Hearst Corp., Meredith Corp., News Corp., Rogers Communications Inc. In 2014, private-equity firm KKR invested US$50 million in the company.
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Apple made its first big push to integrate magazines and newspapers into its devices with an application called Newsstand in 2011. It replaced that with the more comprehensive Apple News service a couple of years ago.

Apple typically doesn’t formally announce acquisitions of smaller companies, but its services executive Eddy Cue, who oversees its media efforts, is speaking at the South by Southwest conference this week in Austin, Texas.

“We’re excited Texture will join Apple, along with an impressive catalog of magazines from many of the world’s leading publishers,” Cue said in a statement. “We are committed to quality journalism from trusted sources and allowing magazines to keep producing beautifully designed and engaging stories for users.”

The company didn’t say how much it paid for Texture, but the move marks Apple’s second reported acquisition of the calendar year. In January, it bought BuddyBuild, a Canada-based app development service.</s>Apple Inc. said it will acquire Next Issue Media LLC and its digital-magazine-subscription service Texture, a product developed by top magazine companies that bundles together some 200 subscriptions into one monthly service.

The acquisition comes as Apple looks to beef up its services business, which includes music streaming and mobile payments.</s>Apple said on Monday it agreed to buy Texture, an online magazine subscription service owned by publishers Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, Rogers Media and investment firm KKR.

Apple didn't say how much it would pay for Texture, which gives users digital access to 200 magazines for one monthly fee.

But the acquisition is another step for Apple to build out its software and services business with recurring subscription revenue, as it competes with companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google, which are increasingly combining hardware and software. Facebook and Google, in particular, have been under scrutiny for the way that their services present news content.

"We are committed to quality journalism from trusted sources and allowing magazines to keep producing beautifully designed and engaging stories for users," Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of software and services, said in a statement.</s>Apple Inc. AAPL, +1.06% said Monday it has reached a deal to buy Texture, which is Next Issue Media LLC's digital magazine subscription service, for an undisclosed amount. Apple's stock rallied 1.0% in midday trade, putting it on track for a second-straight record close. For $9.99 a month, the Texture app gives subscribers access to over 200 magazines, including "People," Newsweek" and "Sports Illustrated" and many others. "We're excited Texture will join Apple, along with an impressive catalog of magazines from many of the world's leading publishers," said Eddy Cue, senior vice president of internet software and services at Apple. "We are committed to quality journalism from trusted sources and allowing magazines to keep producing beautifully designed and engaging stories for users." Apple's stock has gained 5.9% over the past three months and climbed 31% over the past 12 months, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.54% has gained 21% over the past year.</s>Apple said on Monday it will acquire Texture, makers of a digital magazines app that's compared to Netflix for its monthly subscription business model.

For Apple, Texture is a way to bolster its in-house content and service platform while also filling the gap left by Facebook's decision to back away from news distribution. Texture will integrate with Apple News and presumably improve upon the app's curation capabilities.

"We're excited Texture will join Apple, along with an impressive catalogue of magazines from many of the world's leading publishers," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice-president of internet software and services. "We are committed to quality journalism from trusted sources and allowing magazines to keep producing beautifully designed and engaging stories for users."

The Texture acquisition follows Apple's $400 million deal to buy the music recognition app Shazam. While that purchase came with a heft price tag, Apple is known for its typically smaller acquisitions that fold specialized teams into existing products at the company.

In 2014, Apple acquired the company behind TestFlight, a service that provides app beta deployment and analytics. It's feature set was incorporated into Apple services that are still used by developers today. Other small-time acquisitions Apple made recently include its purchases of Pop Up Archive in December and of Buddybuild in January.

VCSELs are an optical technology used in the iPhone X for Face ID, Animoji, and the TrueDepth camera's Portrait mode.

Apple's purchase of Shazam goes well beyond music as it adds data, algorithm knowhow and talent

Shazam may be a natural fit for Apple Music, but the acquisition is also going to make Siri smarter and bring expertise in data engineering and algorithms to the company.

The European Commission received requests to investigate from Austria, France, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain, and Sweden.</s>Click to print (Opens in new window)

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SAN FRANCISCO: Apple announced Monday it is buying digital magazine subscription service Texture, adding to the side of its business aimed at making money from online content or services.

The iPhone maker did not disclose financial terms of the deal to buy Texture from its owners — publishers Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, Rogers Media and global investment firm KKR.

Texture gives subscribers unlimited access to more than 200 magazines, such as Forbes, Esquire, GQ, Wired, People, The Atlantic and National Geographic for a $10 monthly fee.

“We’re excited Texture will join Apple, along with an impressive catalog of magazines from many of the world’s leading publishers,” Apple senior vice president of internet software and service Eddy Cue said in a statement.

“We are committed to quality journalism from trusted sources and allowing magazines to keep producing beautifully designed and engaging stories for users.”

The Texture application launched in 2012, the product of a joint venture created two years earlier.

“We could not imagine a better home or future for the service,” Texture chief executive John Loughlin said.

Despite Apple’s spectacular trajectory in the decade since the introduction of the iPhone, the California technology titan is facing challenges on whether it can continue growth.

While iPhone sales are at the heart of Apple’s money-making machine, the company has taken to spotlighting revenue from the App Store, iCloud, Apple Music, iTunes and other content and services people tap into using its devices.

Texture could add digital magazine subscription revenue to that lineup.

Apple reported that it finished last year with cash reserves of $285 billion — much of that stashed overseas.

The company said it would bring back most of its profits from abroad to take advantage of a favorable tax rate in legislation approved by Congress last year.

The repatriation will result in a tax bill of about $38 billion, while also freeing up big chunks of money for investment. – AFP</s>Apple announced today that it is acquiring digital magazine distributor Texture from Next Issue Media, a company owned by magazine publishers Condé Nast, Hearst, and Meredith; telecom Rogers Media; and investment company KKR. Texture offers an all-you-can-eat subscription pass to over 200 magazines for a monthly fee.

“We’re excited Texture will join Apple,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services, “along with an impressive catalog of magazines from many of the world’s leading publishers. We are committed to quality journalism from trusted sources and allowing magazines to keep producing beautifully designed and engaging stories for users.”

Apple has struggled with the digital magazine business since introducing the iPad in 2010. Originally heralded as a breakthrough for the struggling magazine industry, the iPad was pitched to publishers as a bold new format for print and online articles, and soon offered a Newsstand feature specific to digital magazines and newspapers. Fights between Apple and publishers over everything from revenue sharing to subscriber data led Newsstand to languish and eventually disappear from iOS devices. It was replaced by News, an app that focuses on aggregating news articles from sources across the internet.

Though Next Issue’s service has been offered since the early days of the iPad and reportedly still has yet to attract over a million subscribers, Texture could enable Apple to monetize some of the News content and spotlight specific publishers. Apple’s press release characterizes it as the “leading multi-title subscription service giving users the ability to instantly access some of the most widely read magazines while on the go.” It’s unclear whether the service’s $10 monthly pricing and publication list will remain the same or change following the acquisition.

At SXSW today, Apple’s Cue spoke onstage about the acquisition, saying that Apple plans to integrate Texture’s content into the News app; scattered reports have suggested for two years that Apple was considering a paid subscription offering within News. Cue suggested that Apple’s goal is to promote trusted sources, and thereby avoid the fake news articles that have gained traction in recent times, a topic that Cue and Apple CEO Tim Cook notably spotlighted one year ago at an industry conference.</s>Apple is dipping its hand in the journalism industry, announcing Monday its plans to acquire digital magazine distributor Texture.

Texture offers 200 magazines digitally in its app for a $10-a-month subscription. Within its large catalog, the app curates magazine articles based on the user’s interests.

Texture is available on both iOS and Android, and Apple says it won’t take down its Android platform, according to Recode.

Apple’s purchase of Texture signals the Cupertino tech giant’s expansion of its services segment, which includes Apple Music, iBooks and other services. The segment has been one of its fastest-growing across all its revenue streams; the services segment revenue grew 18 percent in the company’s most recent quarter compared with the same period last year, only behind the “other devices” segment — which includes Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple TV — at 36 percent.

Apple has purchased other media-focused companies, such as Beats for $3 billion and BookLamp, which was then touted as a “Pandora for books,” for as much as $15 million in 2014. Texture is the first known acquisition Apple made in direct contact with publishers and journalism outlets.

“We’re excited Texture will join Apple, along with an impressive catalog of magazines from many of the world’s leading publishers,” said Apple executive Eddy Cue in a press release. “We are committed to quality journalism from trusted sources and allowing magazines to keep producing beautifully designed and engaging stories for users.”

Apple did not disclose how much it paid for Texture. Texture, which is owned by many big publishers such as Conde Nast and Hearst, has hundreds of thousands of subscribers, according to its CEO John Loughlin in 2016.

In 2015, Loughlin and his company, Next Issue Media, raised $90 million, $50 million of which came from the private equity firm KKR after its subscription magazine app was rebranded to Texture.

“I’m thrilled that Next Issue Media, and its award-winning Texture app, are being acquired by Apple,” said Loughlin. “The Texture team and its current owners, Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, Rogers Media and KKR, could not be more pleased or excited with this development. We could not imagine a better home or future for the service.”
Apple Inc. buys digital magazine subscription app Texture for an undisclosed sum.