Sony to buy Gracenote music data company
Sony Corp. of America
will buy Gracenote,
which made its name with software that identifies digital music files, for about
$260 million.
Sony will keep Gracenote as a wholly owned subsidiary and use its technology
in its own digital content, service and device offerings. But Gracenote's current
business will keep operating separately and developing new technologies, and
its management will remain, Sony said. It will pay $260 million plus "other
contingent consideration," the company said.
Although it pioneered portable music players with the Walkman cassette player
and jointly developed the CD, Sony's digital and online music efforts have fallen
short of competitors such as Apple. The company shut down its Connect music
store last August after trying to compete against Apple's iTunes for three years.
Gracenote, formerly CDDB, maintains a database of information about music and
uses it in a variety of applications, including identifying tracks, finding
similar songs and presenting lyrics and other relevant content. Its customers
include iTunes, Yahoo Music Jukebox, and companies in the mobile music business,
such as Sony Ericsson, Japanese carrier KDDI and Europe's Musiwave. Consumer
electronics suppliers, including Sony, also use Gracenote technology in their
products. The company is based in Emeryville, California.
The companies expect the deal to close in late May.
IDG News Service
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