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Apr. 26, 2008

Yesterday, Sony announced that it had acquired music identification company Gracenote for $260 million.

The company said Gracenote’s senior management team will remain with the company, which will continue to operate separately and develop new wireless technologies.

Gracenote’s new service is how Apple’s iTunes application recognizes a CD you pop into your PC.

The new service is also licensed to wireless handset makers Sony Ericsson and Samsung as an accessory to their mobile music offerings.

Tim Schaaff, senior v.p. of software at Sony America said “overall, Gracenote is a global leader in wireless technology and services for digital media identification, enrichment and recommendation, and these capabilities will be essential to the next wave of innovation in content, services and consumer electronics.”

“Sony sees tremendous growth potential in developing Gracenote as a separately run business unit, and by broadly embracing Gracenote’s platforms, Sony expects to significantly enhance and accelerate its own digital content, service and device initiatives,” added Schaaff.

The transaction is expected to close in a few weeks.

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Source: Sony.