Samsung’s Harman acquires Roon, an audiophile-grade multi-room music platform
Samsung Electronics has announced that its subsidiary Harman has acquired Roon, an audiophile-grade multi-room and multi-connectivity music streaming platform. Roon is used by millions of audio enthusiasts worldwide, and the music streaming and discovery platform works well with many audio technologies, including AirPlay, Chromecast/Google Cast, and more. Samsung has made this acquisition in a bid to improve its presence in the digital music sector, but the financial details of this acquisition weren’t revealed.
To remind you, Samsung acquired Harman for $8 billion in March 2017. Harman owns various audio brands, including AKG, B&O (Bang & Olufsen), Harman Kardon, Infinity Audio, and JBL.
Roon has apps for all types of devices, including DACs (Digital To Analog Converters), smartphones, laptops, PCs, smart TVs, Wi-Fi speakers, and USB players. It supports AirPlay, Chromecast, Internet Radio, Qobuz, Roon Ready, Sonos, Squeezebox, Tidal, and local music files. It lets users browse, organize, and play all their music collections across all their devices. It works on over 1,000 products. The company also has its own lineup of music server hardware called Nucleus.
As mentioned earlier, Roon has its own synchronized multi-room audio streaming technology that supports two-way controls, 768hHz PCM and DSD512 audio playback, and has a device certification. Roon Ready devices don’t need any additional configuration or setup. It supports various music formats, including bit-perfect DSD and PCM. With this acquisition, Samsung would have an extremely well-developed music streaming, multi-room audio, and music discovery engine if it wants to integrate into all its smart TVs, smartphones, and other audio devices.
Dave Rogers, President of Lifestyle Division at Harman, said, “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.”
After the acquisition is completed, Roon will continue to operate as a standalone Harman business with its current team. Samsung says that all of Roon’s operations will stay, and the company will continue to operate with its partners and customers in a joint effort to improve high-quality audio delivery through all its apps and services. Samsung is aligned with Roon’s “work with all” strategy.
Enno Vandermeer, CEO of Roon, said, “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.”
