According to reports by Marketwatch and Musically, Samsung is in the final stages of acquiring cloud-based music service mSpot for somewhere in the neighborhood of $8.8M.
(We’ve confirmed these reports with Samsung, see our update below)
The service could be what’s powering Samsung’s Music Hub service, announced along with the new Galaxy S III phone. The service will cost consumers $9.99 monthly for one device and $12.99 monthly for up to four devices.
Local Korean news organization Mael Business reports that the deal is all but done:
South Korea’s tech behemoth Samsung Electronics is at final stages of talks concerning the acquisition of US-based software venture Mspot a year since it started working level discussions. This deal will mark Samsung’s very first takeover of a software firm, and is estimated to cost roughly 10 billion won ($8.84 million)”
A Samsung official confirmed that the company was currently at the final stages of a possible buyout talk, but refrained from commenting further.
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mSpot recently launched a radio feature to go along with its on-demand music and movie streaming service, which makes the acquisition all the more powerful. The Palo Alto based company raised $2.33M in 2005 from Trinity Ventures.
What’s interesting to me is that Samsung, as a hardware manufacturer, simply didn’t hammer out a deal with a company like Spotify, Rdio, or mSpot itself instead of acquiring the assets. However, by baking in its own streaming service, the company has an opportunity to make more money once the handsets leave the warehouse.
We’ve reached out to both Samsung and mSpot for confirmation, but have yet to hear back. We’ll let you know when we do.
UPDATE: We’ve just heard back from Samsung, and the news is confirmed. Check out the press release below:
Palo Alto, Calif. – May 9, 2012 – Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd., a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, announced today it is acquiring mSpot, Inc., a leading mobile cloud-based content service provider based in Palo Alto, California.
The acquisition will provide a cloud-based entertainment experience of music, video and radio services for users of Samsung devices, while extending mSpot’s cloud and streaming solutions to a broader base of global entertainment fans. The combination will extend mSpot’s top class cloud and streaming services while further enhancing Samsung’s mobile and tablet device entertainment offerings. mSpot’s entertainment services will be a key integrated offering on newly announced Samsung mobile devices.
“mSpot shares our vision to bring a best-in-class cloud and streaming entertainment experience to consumers, and they’ve backed it up with innovative technical solutions from a great engineering team,” said TJ Kang, Senior Vice President of Samsung Electronics’ Media Solution Center.
“Samsung is unparalleled in terms of global reach and cutting edge devices; with our combined resources, we are looking forward to redefining media consumption across the mobile universe with cloud services,” said mSpot Chief Executive Officer Daren Tsui.
The acquisition will include the full scope of technology, assets and human resources under mSpot. Further details of the transaction were not disclosed.
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