The beleaguered audio sharing and streaming platform SoundCloud was saved by a $170 million investment Friday, after reports indicated on Thursday that investors could terminate the company within hours, TechCrunch reports.
The "largest financing round in the history of SoundCloud" comes from The Raine Group, which owns the music festival Lollapalooza, and Temesek Holdings, a state-run Singaporean company. SoundCloud co-founder Alex Ljung will also be replaced as CEO by former Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor, but will remain with the company as a chairman, NPR reports.
"All of this together — the capital, the capital partners — with Kerry and [COO Mike Weissman] joining our team — it puts our company in a really great position to stay strong and remain independent," Ljung told Billboard. "We see a strong, independent future for the company."
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TechCrunch adds that despite being saved by the bell, "the company will need to find a way to make its subscription tiers more appealing and scale up its advertising despite having much less staff to drive the changes. If it can’t, SoundCloud could be back begging for cash in a year."
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