RealNetworks Buys Listen.com
By Matt Stump -- Multichannel News, 4/21/2003 4:54:00 PM
There was consolidation in the Internet-content space, as RealNetworks Inc. announced a deal to buy Listen.com (www.listen.com) for $36 million.
Listen.com provides Internet radio-station service tiers and downloads to consumers on a subscription basis.
The company has struck licensing deals for its Rhapsody music service with a host of broadband Internet-service providers including Road Runner, Charter Communications Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp.'s Optimum Online, Verizon Communications' Verizon Online and RCN Corp.
In February, RNI made a "strategic investment" in Listen.com.
RNI's "SuperPass" service counts more than 800,000 subscribers and also includes an Internet-radio service. RNI is also an owner of music-downloading service MusicNet (www.musicnet.com).
RNI said Listen.com CEO Sean Ryan would become vice president of music services in the RealOne Services division, reporting to Merrill Brown, senior VP of the division.
"The opportunity for us to add Listen.com's Rhapsody, the best music-subscription service, into our family of services was just too compelling to pass up," RNI CEO Rob Glaser said in a prepared statement.
He added that he hopes Rhapsody and RealOne's music services will accelerate the adoption of legitimate music services.
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