Sony Buys Gracenote For $260 Million
Sony has purchased Gracenote, a content identification service, for $260 million. Gracenote is involved with several content identification and metadata services and its technology is now integrated into a broad range of computer applications and consumer electronics products.
Gracenote, formerly CDDB, maintains a database of information about music and uses it in a variety of applications, including identifying tracks, finding similar songs and presenting lyrics and other relevant content. Its customers include iTunes, Yahoo Music Jukebox, and companies in the mobile music business, such as Sony Ericsson, Japanese carrier KDDI and Europe’s Musiwave. Consumer electronics suppliers, including Sony, also use Gracenote technology in their products. The company is based in Emeryville, California.
Sony will keep Gracenote as a wholly owned subsidiary and use its technology in its own digital content, service and device offerings. But Gracenote’s current business will keep operating separately and developing new technologies, and its management will remain.
