AfterDawn: News

Yahoo! buys MusicMatch for $160M

Internet giant Yahoo! extended its reach in Net's growing multimedia market today when it announced the deal to acquire media player software house MusicMatch. The deal also puts Yahoo competing directly with likes of Apple and Microsoft in rapidly-growing legal online music business, as MusicMatch is one of the few large media player developers who have integrated their own online music store into a successful media player software, in similar fashion to the Apple's iTunes.

MusicMatch's main product is the MusicMatch Jukebox media player and the player works also as the frontend to MusicMatch's online music store that boasts a selection of 700,000 songs for $0.99 a piece. It also provides subscription service, similar to that offered by a rival online music store, Napster, for $8 a month and has already 225,000 subscribers.



Yahoo agreed to pay $160 million for the privately held MusicMatch and pays the full amount in cash. Several analysts welcomed the Yahoo's move and company's stock price in Nasdaq surged more than 5 percent after the announcement.

Source: Forbes

Written by: Petteri Pyyny @ 14 Sep 2004 16:53

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• 6 comments

• RedAnt

  Great now music match will be loaded with Yahoo!! advertisement, like we didn’t have sufficient spam on our machines as it is.

  15.9.2004 05:03 #1

• ellizit

  I agree, with RedAnt. I do not see this move as a positive one for the actual player. Yahoo!! might make a revenue on it, but that will be caused by the ads integrated into the software by Yahoo!!.

  15.9.2004 05:51 #2

• petrie956

  it sould've been bought by winmx so it could be free!!

  15.9.2004 11:55 #3

• Toiletman

  Quote: Yahoo agreed to pay $160 million for the privately held MusicMatch and pays the full amount in cash. 0_0 ö =O
  
  That much... in cash? My god how many trucks would've that taken?

  15.9.2004 12:15 #4

• vans12

  yahoo just wasted $160m how did they get that much money. WOW!

  15.9.2004 18:35 #5

• dialntone

  I Highly disagree, Yahoo is well known for multimedia and entertainment fun ... this is a great step on proving that yahoo can take care of business and allow its name to be known for what it is. it's all about the Y! - Y entertainment and Y! everything...
  
  if you' ever had to pay for something online i'd have to choose Yahoo its the most well respected company ever established. to the beginning :)

  16.9.2004 00:13 #6