Contentinople - Erin Barker - News Bits: MySpace to Buy iLike for $20M

Written by Erin Barker

Tuesday, August 18. 2009 at 10:55 AM EDT Post a comment

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Several sources are now reporting that MySpace will announce the acquisition of online social music service iLike this week.

According to AllThingsD, the deal could be signed as soon as today, for around $13.5 million and an additional $6 million in talent retention fees.

The acquisition is being made separately from MySpace Music, MySpace's joint venture with music labels, throwing the financially troubled JV's future into question.

While some, like TechCrunch, have suggested that the buy could have been made separately because MySpace plans to use iLike for more than music and music recommendations, others say that MySpace Music, which will lose $20 million this year, doesn't have much time left.

This buy would put Facebook in an awkward situation, as iLike currently runs the most popular music app on Facebook, with 31 million installations.

Facebook, as well as Activision Blizzard and Microsoft, had considered buying iLike at one time, AllThingsD reports, but Facebook and Microsoft were only willing to pay in stock, and iLike wanted cash. Activision was considered the most serious, but it never put in a formal bid.

In other news:

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) is reportedly planning a keynote event in San Francisco for Sept. 9, but the rumored Tablet device won't be unveiled, AllThingsD reports. Instead the event will feature iPod upgrades and an "update to iTunes that may involve some sort of social element." It's rumored, but unconfirmed, that this event will be CEO Steve Jobs's first public appearance since he returned from medical leave.

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT)'s new search engine, Bing, is slowly but surely gaining market share, increasing from 8.4 percent in June to 8.9 percent in July. Meanwhile, both Google's and Yahoo's market shares fell by 0.3 percent.

Tags: Acquistions, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Music, MySpace, Product Launch, Search, Yahoo

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