[Infowarrior] - Sony to acquire Gracenote

[Richard Forno]

Sony to acquire Gracenote

http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/04/22/sony.gracnote/

Sony Corporation of America has signed a merger agreement with Gracenote,
Inc, and will pay approximately $260 million plus other contingent
consideration for the digital media information warehouse. Formerly known as
CDDB, Gracenote delivers information -- including lyrics -- on music to
various services including Apple iTunes and Yahoo! Music Jukebox. The
companies say that Gracenote's existing business will continue to operate
separately as a wholly owned Sony subsidiary, and that the senior management
team will remain with the company.

"Gracenote is a global leader in technology and services for digital media
identification, enrichment, and recommendation, and these capabilities will
be essential to the next wave of innovation in content, services, and
consumer electronics," said Tim Schaaff, Sony's Senior Vice President,
Software. "Sony sees tremendous growth potential in developing Gracenote as
a separately run business unit, and by broadly embracing Gracenote's
platforms, Sony expects to significantly enhance and accelerate its own
digital content, service, and device initiatives."