Monday, May 1, 2006

Muze Buys LoudEye's Seattle Operations

Muze, a New York-based provider of digital content, has acquired certain assets of Seattle-based Loudeye in an $11M deal, the firm announced. Muze said that it will use the acquisition to offer turn-key, fully hosted music download and subscriptions, along with a 30-second music sampling service. Muze said that the transaction closed on April 30th. The deal includes Loudeye's encoding services, music samples service, and hosting and internet radio services. Loudeye said that it will refocus its services on its OD2 platform, a music download service in Europe. The businesses sold to Muze account for roughly 23% of Loudeye's total revenue for last year. Loudeye said that it will continue to maintain offices in the Seattle area.