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Shares of Apple Inc. were set to close at an all-time high Thursday after the top-valued U.S. company announced concessions for some top developers on its app store regarding commissions, while shares in these application makers have also increased.
Apple AAPL,
stocks rose 1.5% in morning trading and last rose 0.7% to $ 153.50. A close at this level would surpass the stock’s current closing record of $ 153.12, which was set on Monday. The company’s market capitalization is over $ 2.52 trillion.
Apple announced Wednesday night that it would allow developers of so-called playback apps, which offer subscription content like Netflix Inc. NFLX,
and Spotify Technology SA SPOT,
to give customers the ability to bypass its in-app buying commissions by making direct purchases from the respective companies. Shares of Netflix rose more than 2% in Thursday morning trading, extending their best two-week gain streak into record territory, while shares of Spotify rose 7%.
Learn more about the change: Apple relaxes App Store payment rules for reader apps in another developer concession
Shares of Match Group Inc. MTCH,
jumped 6%, though it’s unclear whether the company’s subscription products, including Match.com and Tinder, would be covered by Apple’s latest franchise. A Match official said during a congressional hearing in April that the company pays Apple around $ 500 million in commissions a year.
The change would not affect video games, which are said to produce the largest share of the App Store’s revenue and have led to one of its biggest fights. Epic Games, known for their battle royale game “Fortnite”, was instrumental in igniting a developer rebellion by suing Apple and Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG,
GOOGL,
Google, claiming that its app stores maintained monopoly power by taking commissions of up to 30% on in-app purchases on pain of removing an app.
See: The (anticipated) verdict in Epic v. Apple is in
Video game stocks were mixed on Thursday. Unity Software Inc. shares U,
rallied 5%. Shares of Roblox Holding Corp. RBLX,
and Playtika Holding Corp. PLTK,
rose more than 1%, while shares of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. TTWO,
rose less than 1%, and shares of Electronic Arts Inc. EA,
Activision Blizzard Inc. ATVI,
and Zynga Inc. ZNGA,
were down slightly.
The Coalition for App Fairness, led by companies like Epic, Spotify and Match, criticized Apple’s concession Wednesday night as a way “to protect [its] Monopoly the App Store by dividing developers into winners and losers.
Apple made further concessions last week in a proposed 2019 class action settlement brought by developers over app practices.
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