Microsoftis to purchase mobile music
service provider Musiwave from parent company Openwave for £23m. As
well as taking on the company's assets and clients, it will also
assume £2m of net debt.
Musiwave builds and hosts
white-label mobile music services for mobile operators such as
T-Mobile and Orange.
This is the second time that Musiwave has been snapped up in two
years, the original Openwave acquisition coming in January
2006.
However, Microsoft is getting it for considerably less than the
£58m that Openwave paid.
"This is perhaps an indicator of the fact that growth in mobile
music has not been as strong as the operators, service providers
and record labels might have hoped. At the same time, the ringtone
market, which is a key area for Musiwave, has been in decline. This
will no doubt have had a knock-on effect on the company's fortunes,
but being under Microsoft's umbrella should relieve any financial
worries," said Jonathan Arber, an analyst at Ovum.