A week ago we reported that Vivendi Universal bought mp3.com. Yesterday Bertelsmann announced they aquired Myplay.com, a small competitor of mp3.com. Vivendi paid $372 million, Bertelsmann is expected to pay around $30 million.
 In addition to its music locker service, Myplay also has developed a business-to-business digital subscription-management service that could come into play as Bertelsmann attempts to change the rogue file-sharing service Napster into a subscription-based operation. |
In a press release today, Bertelsmann and Myplay said that Myplay's locker service has more than 6.5 million registered users. However, Rick Dube, a senior analyst at digital entertainment intelligence firm Webnoize, said that the number of people with active accounts may total no more than 20 percent of that number.
Bertelsmann is mainly interested in Myplay's customisable subscription-management service. It can probably be useful in the subscription based model for Napster.
Source: Newsbytes
