Shares of Apple Inc. they were about to close the record high on Thursday after the most valuable US company announced concessions for some major developers of its app store in terms of commissions, while the shares of these app makers also they won.
Apple AAPL,
shares rose 1.5% in morning operations and rose 0.7% behind, to $ 153.50. A close at that level would surpass the current stock close of $ 153.12, which was set on Monday. The company’s market capitalization stands at more than $ 2.52 trillion.
Apple said Wednesday afternoon that it will allow developers of so-called reading apps, which offer subscribed content from the hand of Netflix Inc. NFLX,
and Spotify Technology SA SPOT,
to give customers the option to avoid purchase commissions from the app by purchasing directly from the respective companies. Shares of Netflix rose more than 2% in Thursday morning trading, extending its best two-week earnings range to record territory, while shares of Spotify rose 7%.
Learn more about the change: Apple releases App Store payment rules for “read” apps in another developer grant
Match Group Inc. shares MTCH,
rose 6%, though it’s unclear if the company’s subscription products, including Match.com and Tinder, would be covered under Apple’s latest concession. A Match executive said at a hearing in April that the company pays about $ 500 million in annual commissions to Apple.
The change would not affect video games, which are believed to generate most of the revenue from the App Store and have caused one of their biggest fights. Epic Games, known for its royal battle game “Fortnite”, was instrumental in starting a developer rebellion by suing Apple and Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG.
GOOGL,
Google, claiming that its app stores maintained the power of the monopoly, taking commissions of up to 30% on purchases from the app under the threat of dropping an app.
See: The (expected) verdict in the Epic v. Apple is present
Video game stocks mixed on Thursday. Unity Software Inc. share U,
met 5%. Shares of Roblox Holding Corp. RBLX,
and Playtika Holding Corp. PLTK,
increased more than 1%, while shares of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. THREE,
rose less than 1% and shares of Electronic Arts Inc. EA,
Activision Blizzard Inc. ATVI,
and Zynga Inc. ZNGA,
they were fractionated.
The Coalition for App Fairness, led by companies such as Epic, Spotify and Match, criticized Apple’s concession on Wednesday evening as a way to “protect” [its] App Store monopoly dividing developers into winners and losers.
Apple made other concessions last week in a motion to resolve a 2019 class action lawsuit by developers over app practices.