Qobuz takeover confirmed; fresh investment and expansion planned

Xandrie is to take over the assets of Qobuz, excluding any liabilities, and will continue to run the service under the same name, alongside its own portfolio of entertainment and technologogy companies.

Qobuz went into receivership last year, with co-founder Yves Riesel now admitting it had "failed to achieve its goals" over the last three years. Riesel said he would now leave the company in a blog post on the Qobuz website.

Xandrie was established in 2012 and is part of the Thébaud group, which has a range of digital entertainment interests. The company recently established 'allbrary', a digital library for music, books, games, videos and more.

The two services will run separately but the new owners hope to pool resources in order to strengthen "the Qobuz brand, services and positioning" and to help the brand grow worldwide.

Qobuz was the first streaming service to offer CD-quality lossless streams, plus a Sublime download/streaming hybrid subscription option and hi-res audio streaming on Android.

The company has clearly struggled to compete in a streaming market now featuring the likes of Apple Music and Spotify, as well as lossless options from Tidal and Deezer Elite. Fresh investment will aim to change that in 2016.

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Joe Cox
Content Director

Joe is Content Director for T3 and What Hi-Fi?, having previously been the Global Editor-in-Chief of What Hi-Fi?. He has worked on What Hi-Fi? across the print magazine and website for more than 15 years, writing news, reviews and features on everything from turntables to TVs, headphones to hi-fi separates. He has covered product launch events across the world, from Apple to Technics, Sony and Samsung; reported from CES, the Bristol Show, and Munich High End for many years; and written for sites such as the BBC, Stuff, and the Guardian. In his spare time, he enjoys expanding his vinyl collection and cycling (not at the same time).